The Council of the European Union called for stimulus interventions totalling 1.5 per cent of the euro-area GDP in 2009. In all the industrial countries and in many emerging economies, first and foremost China, the fiscal policy response has been markedly expansive.
On the basis of the indicators and survey data, it appears that the tendency in economic activity to strengthen and broaden since the second and third quarters of 2005 has so far been broadly confirmed. I am not speaking of successive indicators and figures which can be volatile, but of the trend.