The total amount of guarantees applied for is € million, which have enabled funds to be mobilised through new loans and other forms of financing for a total of 28  € million. This means that, on average, 76% of the amount of these operations has been covered by public guarantees. 29  The need for a common response from the euro area countries As I explained before, various euro area countries taking purely individual action will not provide the most effective response to the crisis. We have forged increasingly closer links as European citizens over recent decades, and this process has intensified over the last 20 years following the creation of the single currency. Europe has been one of the regions hardest hit by the current crisis, with the result that all Europeans have been affected, to a greater or lesser extent, by the same problem. Some of the reasons for joint action by European countries in response to this emergency even transcend the economy. Europe embodies the ideas of freedom and progress. And in a crisis of this gravity, it is essential that European citizens perceive their governments to be capable of acting jointly if we want to consolidate and strengthen public support for the European project. Furthermore, going beyond these ideals and from a strictly economic rationale, if there is one lesson we should have learnt from the sovereign debt crisis ten years ago, it is that a lack of unified action is detrimental to all.
Jean-Pierre Roth: Heading for more sustained growth? Summary of an address by Mr Jean-Pierre Roth, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, at the General Meeting of the Swiss Italian Chamber of Commerce, Zurich, 20 June 2006. The complete speech can be found in French on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). *  *  *  Lately, Switzerland has been experiencing an encouraging upturn in the economy on the back of growth in the international economy. This development is particularly welcome because it follows a number of years of economic listlessness which have prompted repeated criticism from international bodies, due to the lack of growth in the Swiss economy. However, Switzerland's medium and long-term growth problem has not disappeared. Faster economic growth is the only possible response to the challenges posed by an ageing population. Moreover, it is the sole antidote to Switzerland's continuing loss of ground with respect to the other members of the OECD. Reforms are needed to ensure that, in the future, we can achieve more with fewer resources. The ways and means of doing this are evident. The Federal Council's package of growth measures is a move in the right direction, and the current improvement in the economy gives Switzerland the opportunity to move ahead with the requisite reforms. BIS Review 59/2006  1