In part, reduced business lending may reflect some tightening of 66 lending standards, particularly by larger banks and for riskier borrowers. Probably the more important  5  Bassett and Carlson (2002) discuss bank performance in 2001. 6  That tightening has been most prevalent at the largest banks is suggested by analysis of the Senior Loan Officer Survey.
That opens up the way to a higher natural rate of interest, and generally more normal monetary and financial conditions. The title of the previous session was “How to reform Europe”. In the same way as the whole EU, we in the small euro area countries face the need to reform our economies. Monetary policy is common for the whole area.