In this regard, last week we confirmed that from June 2024 the countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB) rate would be increased to 1.5%.3 This is in line with the gradual build-up announced last year and our macro prudential strategy of a neutral CCyB of one and a half per cent, when cyclical risks are neither elevated nor subdued.
But we must consider that, in trade deals, the interests of producers and consumers are seldom aligned. Often the benefits of a given tariff or import quota are concentrated in the hands of few well-organized producers, while their costs, no matter how great in absolute terms, are spread among a large number of unaware and unorganized consumers.