In the euro area, real GDP fell by altogether almost 4.5 percent and unemployment rose by 1.4 percentage points in just six months. At the same time, extra-euro area export volumes of goods decreased by 18.0% and import volumes by 12.8%. The ECB acted quickly and decisively in response to the crisis. We reduced our key interest rates to unprecedented low levels.
The interest rate at the main refinancing operations was lowered by 325 basis points to 1.0% between October 2008 and May 2009, i.e. within a period of only seven months. And, we have left it unchanged since then. In addition, we introduced a series of non-standard measures to support credit provision by banks to the euro area economy.