Let me start with the first challenge I want to discuss today, namely the need to raise economic growth in a sustainable manner. We all know that the growth performance of a number of euro area countries has been disappointing during the past years, both in a historical perspective and compared with other economies.
However, the more pressing risks are to be found in the danger that payment systems might collapse, liquidity bottlenecks might occur, and the number of credit defaults might increase, owing to Year 2000 problems on the part of banks’ customers.