I mentioned already the large decline in overall Target balances, and it is important to add here that this improvement has materialised also for Germany: the Target claim of Germany has fallen from a peak of 760 billion euros in the middle of last year to about 590 billion euros last month. This is a decrease of 170 billion euros or 22%.
A domestic infrastructure for the euro  •  The introduction of the euro has been pushing the emergence of a coherent infrastructure for the euro area, as demonstrated by the consolidation currently taking place in the field of stock exchanges, payment systems and securities clearing and settlement systems.