The possible increase in the international use of the euro may not be rapid in early years until a critical threshold is reached attracting more and more international agents. Besides, the euro is probably going to develop faster as an international store of value than as an international transaction and pricing instrument.
When we appeared before this committee a year ago, the price of Brent crude oil was at $ per barrel. It had risen steadily for a decade, from $ in 2002 to a peak of just over $ in 2012. By November, when we last met with you, oil prices had fallen to what was then their lowest level in four years.