Developments regarding COVID-19 continue to warrant attention as a resurgence in confirmed cases has been observed recently in the United States and Europe (Chart 1). Meanwhile, in Japan, the number of confirmed cases surged from late March, and the government declared a state of emergency in April.
All the members of the European System of Central Banks who are present here would say as I do: “Thank you Wim, from the bottom of our hearts, for having guided us so skilfully and successfully in so many “battlefields”. Wim was not only a great central banker.