In the current debate in the European Parliament, that fact should be recalled whenever there is talk of “democratic accountability”. In order to rule out politicians’ intervention from the outset, the responsibility for the monetary system was assigned to the central bank.
Given our dependence on the U.S. market, our exports are still below their pre-recession peak. More broadly, with only 9 per cent of our exports going to the fast-growing emerging-market economies, our export performance has been the second worst in the G-20 over the past decade.