The pace of liberalisation has differed considerably across countries and sectors in the euro area, leaving ample room for further reforms. Whereas the integration of goods markets is relatively advanced, shortcomings still exist with regard to the integration of service industries.
The traditional view is that interest rates can continue to fall up to the point at which people withdraw their money and put their cash in a safe. For some time now, other economic effects have also been taken into account, with the question being whether, as a whole, further interest rate cuts have the desired monetary policy effect.