We were not bluffing, most certainly not.” The other side to the coin is that you bought so much time for politicians that they no longer needed to implement reforms so rapidly. Do you also see this other side? “Yes and no. We have a mandate to safeguard price stability. We are not responsible for how politicians make use of the time they have.
I do not want to mix the responsibilities of the central bank with those of governments. But look at the extent of the reforms undertaken by governments since 2012. You will then need to admit that considerable progress has been made. Take Spain, for example, which has restructured its banking sector and reformed the labour market. Portugal is another example and Ireland yet another.