This is my last speech at this conference as President of the ECB, and in preparing for it, I looked back at the speech I gave here in November 2011. There I lamented that the economic crisis would require a faster pace in strengthening the Monetary Union, especially for decisions that had already been taken.6 This perhaps has a familiar ring today.
China, for instance, grew at an annual rate of 6.9% in 2015 and is expected to continue to grow by an annual average of around 6% up until 2020. China is, therefore, a long way off the doubledigit growth figures that it had recorded in the past. This, however, is not unusual, as, typically, the catching-up process slows down as per capita income rises.