Against this background, it should be stressed that notable headway has been made in recent years in correcting some of the imbalances that had built up in the Spanish economy during the expansion prior to the crisis. Contributing factors here, in addition to the more temporary factors I have just mentioned, were certain structural reforms introduced during the crisis. Of note, first, is the intense deleveraging, carried out by households and non-financial corporations. Specifically, the corporate debt/GDP ratio has fallen by 42 percentage points (pp) from mid-2010, when it peaked, to 2018 Q3, meaning that this indicator now stands some 2 pp below the related figure for the euro area. In the case of households, the process has been slower (partly on account of the greater average life of the debt incurred), but also very significant. Over the same period, households’ debt ratio fell by 25 pp and its level is but 3 pp above the related euro area figure. Accordingly, in both cases, the deleveraging 3/7  process is at a very advanced stage, although some heterogeneity is evident. In particular, in the two sectors, certain agents continue to face situations of high financial pressure as a result of debt incurred. In parallel, the banking sector has been subject to an intense process of clean-up, recapitalisation and restructuring. And in the past four and a half years its basic parameters – such as asset quality and profitability and solvency levels – have improved notably.
Let me mention a few of them: (i) the reinforcement of policy measures to address bank-like risks stemming from the activities of non-banks, which have significantly increased in recent years; (ii) the emergence of new risks, such as those derived from financial technology or cybersecurity; 4/5  (iii) the strengthening of sustainable finance to address environmental risk, and (iv) the creation or expansion of global and regional backstops. I am certain that our speakers in this conference will address these and other interesting matters. Indeed we will have the opportunity to explore this subject in depth through nine selected articles by prominent researchers. Actually, we are most privileged to have with us two distinguished keynote speakers, Ricardo Reis and Torben Andersen, who will no doubt illuminate us on these important matters. This two-day conference is organised in four sessions: the first will address certain money and market-related aspects. During the second session we will try to shed some light on the propagation of shocks when considering higher-order statistical moments of economic and financial variables. The third session will deal with two issues related to risk which are important for central banks, namely the credit risk associated with monetary policy operations and the evaluation of systemic risk measures. Finally, the fourth session on uncertainty will deal with the spillovers from the uncertainty on certain financial markets to the macroeconomy or to other markets. And now, allow me to introduce you to our first speaker, Ricardo Reis. We are particularly honoured to have him here today.