Let me finally add with a view to the German banking system that lending by banks in Germany to German non-banks grew with an annual rate of merely 0.8% on average in precrisis years (ie 2004 to 2006). Hence, during that time, German banks profited strongly from portfolio investments in structured financial products and booming real estate markets abroad.
*  *  *  Dear Mrs. Minister, Mr. Minister, Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, It would be true to say that citizens of Serbia are its main article of export since no other “article“ brings in more foreign currency than the Serbian diaspora sending remittances from abroad.