Consider the international balance sheet of the euro area. Its assets and liabilities vis-à-vis non-residents account for over 120% and 130% of euro area GDP, respectively. This is more than in other large, mature economies, such as the United States, where the corresponding figures are 90% and 110% of GDP. Not only that: we are becoming increasingly open.
Rather, I'd like to take a step back and talk about some aspects of how the Bank's economics team understand and interpret economic developments, so we can do the analysis that is an important input into the Board's decisions. Most of our job is interpreting recent data and using that to forecast the future.