*  *  Introduction  Ladies and gentlemen As I pointed out in my opening remarks yesterday, I am happy to be here in Istanbul to attend this joint seminar of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and the Deutsche Bundesbank. Over the past two days we have shared ideas about macroprudential policy, and we have improved these ideas through discussion.
At this point, I wish to change the perspective and take a closer look at the real economy and the macroeconomic situation in Germany. And as Germany is part of a monetary union, my presentation would be incomplete without discussing the situation of the euro area as well. 2.