The impressive rise in the overall employment rate in the euro area over the past decade, which partly reflects the progress made on structural reforms, wage moderation policy and immigration flows in some  2  Most euro area countries have benefited from significantly more favourable financing conditions than in the 1990s, which has supported private and public investment, as well as fiscal consolidation.
For instance, in the euro area in the nine years following the introduction of the euro, real gross capital formation grew on average by 3.0% per year, compared with only 1.7% during the nine-year period preceding the introduction of the euro.