Even in the short history of the euro area, our macroeconomic performance has suffered from fiscal procyclicality, as well as from episodes of fiscal sustainability problems in some member countries. Sustainable fiscal positions and countercyclical fiscal policy are necessary conditions for the realisation of price stability and macroeconomic stability.
It is now a little over three years since the onset of the financial crisis in August 2007. Since that time, financial markets have varied substantially in terms of pricing, volumes and functioning. Conditions in global markets now are markedly improved from their dire position in the last quarter of 2008.