This is somewhat offset 1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  by a reduction in risk weights for loans to small and medium-sized enterprises. Third, there is the hotly debated output floor. It ensures that risk-weighted assets calculated with internal models do not fall too far below those calculated with standardised approaches. “Too far below” means they must reach at least 72.5%.
I am therefore less concerned with short-term cyclical movements than with medium and long-term economic trends in Germany. For this reason, I shall start by looking back and, in doing so, have to state that Germany’s economic development over the past decade has often tended to be disappointing by international standards. I.