Having discussed what “to SEPA” means, let me turn to the question of who is in the driving seat of the SEPA process. The creation of SEPA is a major European policy objective for the European Commission and the Eurosystem. Thus, we are closely monitoring the developments, assessing the state of preparation and providing guidance to the market where necessary.
Production in the "new economy” can respond more quickly to signs of slower demand and emerging inventory building. But the slowdown has "new economy" written all over it in other ways as well. The equity correction, for example, is a product, in part, of excesses that accumulated during the economy's earlier adjustment to the productivity acceleration.