Looking at the euro area today, what is immediately clear is that since our credit easing package in June 2014, we have been benefitting from a more broad-based and domestic demand-driven recovery. This was not the case during the 2009–11 recovery which relied heavily on net exports (Chart 6). And as the economy has strengthened we have indeed seen the unemployment rate falling significantly.
Pinning down the precise contribution of monetary policy to this is challenging, but we can see that since June 2014 our measures have triggered a downward convergence of bank lending rates and an upward trend in credit volumes, with borrowing costs in vulnerable countries now approaching those enjoyed by Germany and other stronger economies.