*  *  *  Chairman Kerry, Ranking Member Snowe, and members of the Committee, I am pleased to appear before you on behalf of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to discuss the availability of credit to small businesses. Small businesses are critical to the health of the U.S. economy.
With growth slowing down in a synchronised manner across borders, the space for undertaking and/or pushing ahead with structural reforms is likely to become severely constricted or even deterred. But the fact remains that we need more structural reforms precisely when the economy is slowing down to ensure durable momentum to growth. This is a point which I would like to stress. 6.