By comparison, the drag from competitiveness effects was about 2.5 percentage points. In short, our underperformance prior to the crisis was more a reflection of who we traded with than how effectively we did it. This is even more the case since the onset of the Great Recession. Canadian export growth has continued to lag the global average by about 5 percentage points annually.
While I have thus far focused on the ECB, it is important to recognise that digitalisation and climate change are universal developments that affect all of us in Europe and worldwide. Europe is uniquely positioned to master these challenges. Building on common safeguards and competitive incentives, the Single Market offers enormous potential for economic modernisation.