ECB analysis attributes a significant portion of this fall to the workings of our asset purchase programme.11 And effective forward guidance on and implementation of the APP may have also helped to 4 / 10  BIS central bankers' speeches  reinforce forward guidance on rates – a channel famously labelled the “signalling” channel.
Some of the most severely affected sovereigns were euro area Member States that had enjoyed relatively benign financing conditions before 2008. But they had not taken sufficient advantage of these conditions to put public finances on a sustainable path, or implement structural reforms that would have improved their economic competitiveness and smoothed their adjustment.