They have a population of 250 million people, which is growing at an annual rate of 1.8 per cent; young people below 15 years of age are 33 per cent of the total. The European Union has a population of 380 million; the proportion of young people under 15 is only 17 per cent.
Other temporary measures introduced during the crisis have less bearing on fragmentation. For instance, we also widened eligibility requirements for collateral, such as for certain asset-backed securities, and accepted non-euro denominated collateral.4 We did all this to achieve a specific monetary policy goal; but once we reach that goal and liquidity demand declines, there should be less need for those exceptional measures to continue.