We all know that pain will continue to afflict us and will be difficult to heal if we persist in concealing a wound. The credo of intensifying competition will sooner or later open up any and every wound suffered by non-competitive banks. For us to restore soundness, we must open the wound and take serious action, including possible amputation.
The Governing Council will therefore continue to monitor very closely all developments so as to ensure price stability over the medium and longer term. Turning first to the economic analysis, the quarter-on-quarter growth rate of real GDP in the euro area for the second quarter of 2006 was confirmed at 0.9%.