An important reason for this lack of applications is the existence of national large exposure limits on intragroup exposures in several European countries. These limits prevent institutions in these countries from transferring liquidity within the group in a flexible manner and thus represent practical obstacles to the use of liquidity waivers.
Global activity is still expanding, but growth in important euro area trading partners, such as China, has been moderating. This has been feeding through to lower euro area exports. Indeed, a large part of the growth slowdown in the third quarter of 2018 came from a weaker contribution from net exports.