In China, the world's most populous country, growth in currency in circulation has averaged around 5 per cent annually over the past four years even though the country has, at the same time, experienced a dramatic shift to electronic forms of payment – more dramatic, in fact, than in most other countries.
Given the experience with SMP, that commitment needed to be clearly spelled out and backed by a programme with the then EFSF, now the ESM. The sense is now that it has acted as a nuclear deterrent. You never really needed to draw on it because markets find it so convincing.