3.1  Measuring the progress of European financial integration  Only last Friday the ECB published, for the first time, a series of indicators regarding the state of integration of euro area financial and banking markets, together with an explanatory report entitled “Indicators of financial integration in the euro area”.
Economic policies should be geared toward restoring the role of the private sector in the growth process. Policies should foster productivity gains, increased employment and higher investment in the real sector. The public sector must be prepared for leaving the driver’s seat of the economic developments. As regards monetary policy issues, we will discuss them in detail this afternoon.