While higher productivity increases here have partly offset these differences, these have been confined to a relatively small number of industrial sectors. The strengthening of the euro since the middle of last year has exacerbated the effect of these unfavourable trends on competitiveness.
As you can see, the papers at this conference cover a variety of important topics, and I expect they will provoke spirited discussions among the many experts in attendance. I must say that I am encouraged to see so many researchers from a wide range of academic and government institutions working on issues of great interest to both community bankers and their regulators.