My positive assessment of the first ten years of monetary union results mainly from the fact that EMU clearly contributed to a favourable climate for economic growth within the euro area. Throughout the financial crisis, however, the euro proved to be far more than a growth factor for the euro area. In several respects it has stabilised the member economies.
Given the skills and education of its workforce and a number of institutional factors, such as its legal structure, each economy will achieve its maximum possible average living standard. Indeed, the Group of Seven leaders, at their 1977 economic summit, identified inflation as a cause of unemployment. This had not always been the case.