I had the pleasure of addressing you in January 2005, when I talked about the euro’s successes and challenges. Four new countries have since joined the euro area, with the result that 329 million citizens now share the same currency. The financial turbulence intensified significantly in September of last year and has quickly spread from the financial sector to the real economy.
In sharing my thoughts on this subject, I will talk about the role of the operational framework of the Eurosystem, which comprises the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the euro area.