Contrary to conventional wisdom and the detailed historic economic modelling on which it is based, it is most unusual for inflation to be falling this far into a business expansion. Many of the imbalances observed during the few times in the past that a business expansion has lasted more than seven years are largely absent today.
Sovereign debt developments  Let me now turn to the current sovereign debt developments. As you know, at the euro area level, we see that fiscal consolidation in many countries is ongoing, and will, according to the European Commission’s Spring 2011 Forecast, bring the euro area general government deficit down to 3.5% by 2012. This is an encouraging prospect, especially by international comparison.