And the next two years saw central banks use forceful combinations of conventional and unconventional stimulus to support consumption and guide their economies to strong recoveries. As you’ll see in Chart 2, these fiscal and monetary policy measures effectively expanded public sector balance sheets to offset pressures that would have strained balance sheets in the private sector.
I do not intend to comment on whether the UK should join the euro area or not. When the UK requests that it be allowed to move to the third stage, the Council of the EU will have to decide if the necessary conditions - that is to say, the convergence criteria - have been fulfilled. II Europe has changed.