This, in turn, enhanced the incentives of businesses to invest in productive plant and equipment. Recently, however, some of those gains have been given up. To a degree, the return to budget deficits has been a result of temporary factors, especially the falloff in revenues and the increase in outlays associated with the economic downturn.
*** Before concluding my remarks, I should like to stress an important constraint that will guide all our actions in relation to the three above-mentioned steps. Whatever the intensity of the Eurosystem's involvement in the enlargement process, we will always focus on the maintenance of price stability in the euro area.