Moreover, the figures for 2001 and 2003 have not been validated by Eurostat, so it might be assumed that the final deficit figures for these years are still higher than the current reported numbers.
Now I would like to turn to the main findings of this report. In brief: The resilience of the EU banking sector has further improved in 2005 and the first half of 2006, adding to the trend in place since 2003. The most obvious cause of this enhanced stability is higher earnings. Profitability increased for EU banks across all size groups.