To summarise, we have employed a wide range of measures to counter the effect of the financial and economic crisis. The approach we have followed has been tailored to the needs of the euro area, where the banking system plays a more important role in financing than in other major economies.
These differences are important for the implementation and transmission of monetary policy, and therefore the Eurosystem’s reactions to the crisis cannot be compared directly with those of other leading central banks. Fiscal policy measures Let me now turn to the fiscal policy reaction to the economic crisis.