6  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Concluding remarks I would like to offer some concluding remarks. For too long, the countries at the euro’s periphery sacrificed long-term gains for short-term gratification. We have seen the results. The policy reforms that the euro-area’s crisis countries are now implementing follow an established recipe.
That recipe worked for the U.S. and the U.K. in the 1980s, Sweden and Finland in the early 1990s, Asia in the late 1990s, Germany in the early 2000s, and in many other countries. That recipe stresses the need to improve competitiveness, and includes fixing social security, strengthening employment incentives, privatisation, and streamlining the public sector.