To reboot TFP growth and deepen capital accumulation they will need to stimulate domestic investment spending and help new, innovative industries to grow and develop. Only in this way will convergence towards the EU-28 average accelerate. These should be joint efforts, however, which brings me to the second part of my remarks. Europe can and should help, in three main ways.
Today, risk-based capital and leverage ratios for banks of all sizes have improved materially since 2009 and are significantly above their levels in the years preceding the crisis. The banking sector overall also has substantially improved its liquidity position over the past few years.