Our task is to ensure price stability. This very aim is now thought by economists to be at risk – in December the price level even fell. Is that already deflation? The ECB’s definition of it seems so far to have been vague.
Sure, a certain loss of business is unavoidable and also makes sense in the current environment, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the number of banks and savings banks needs to drop; there’s no reason why larger banks couldn’t just get smaller. A severely consolidated sector is surely not in our country’s best interests – at least, that’s the way I see it.