In the Euro region, important steps have been taken to address the current problems. However, political differences within economies undergoing adjustment and among economies providing support have impeded achievement of a lasting solution. We have already witnessed causalities of these crises. Similarly the political processes in the United States and Japan are facing challenges in reaching consensus on medium term fiscal adjustments.
Thanks to the measures taken both at national and European level, financial conditions in the euro area today are much less strained than they were at the end of 2011, when the yield spread between ten-year BTPs and the equivalent German Bunds had reached 550 basis points, or even with respect to the summer of 2012, when that same differential, after previously narrowing, had regained similarly high levels.