This resulted in a decline of lending to households and enterprises, as well as in a drop of 4% in euro area growth in 2009.
By and large, I have been on the Monetary Board for nearly 12 years, and there has not been a single case where the government intervened when we close a bank [to maintain financial stability] and, of course, in the area of monetary policy. There are no messages from the President on what he wants the interest rate to be.