Interest rates have also been lower in both nominal and real terms across a range of maturities. As a consequence of these developments, low, stable and predictable inflation has encouraged more solid economic growth and lower and less-variable unemployment. The global economic and financial crisis of 2008–09 delivered the largest shock in decades, putting the regime to an unprecedented test. It passed.
For example, interest rates for long-term government bonds in Italy and Spain, even in 1995, were 5 to 6 percentage points higher than the rates for German Federal Bonds. As the home of the former anchor currency in the ERM, Germany did not benefit directly from this process of interest rate convergence.