*  *  Nature and history of the project  In the eight years since the launch of the Economic and Monetary Union great efforts have been devoted to support the implementation of the common monetary policy.
European and national statistical institutions, academia and, naturally, the ECB and national central banks have all worked to provide more timely and reliable data, new instruments of analysis and a deeper knowledge of the euro-area economy. Today, we can base our policy decisions and forecasts on a firmer understanding of the functioning of the euro-area economy as a whole.