21  challenging period and improved dramatically since the day when the word "macroprudence" did not exist and we lacked the experience of and tools for crisis management. As I have talked about today, knowledge regarding macroprudential policy has been accumulated and the remaining issues to be tackled have become clearer. We really have come a long way.
I will not have the cruelty of quoting today those that had prophesised that the European single currency was impossible or that its introduction would be a complete failure, or that in any case it was impossible for it to be credible given the very nature of its construction. Nonetheless, there is no place for complacency.