Also, despite the successful conclusion of the third adjustment programme in August, Greek government bonds are still below investment grade and bond spreads remain close to 400 basis points. Moreover, the cost of the adjustment programme in terms of output and unemployment losses has been much higher than in the other euro area Member States that also implemented adjustment programmes.
I will start today by providing a brief overview of the progress achieved so far. I will then discuss the current economic conditions and prospects, as well as the challenges ahead. Next, I will highlight what, in my opinion, went wrong during the programme implementation in spite of overall success, and I will also refer to certain weaknesses of the EMU architecture.