Many of my friends in the real economy say that the Czech Republic is a country where everything is produced, from wings for Airbus and Embraer aircraft (we are also the biggest producer of ultralight planes in the world, for instance), through turbines, cars, buses, locomotives and guns to bearings, brushes and semtex. Whatever you need to produce you will always find at least one factory capable of making it, the anecdotic evidence seems to be suggesting. As exports obviously feed this country, and as we are so close to Germany and the Germanspeaking world, you won’t be surprised to learn that Germany is by far our biggest trading partner, with more than 30% of our exports going there and with the biggest proportion of foreign investment in the Czech Republic coming from Germany. (The UK is roughly the tenth or eleventh biggest source of investment for this country.) But you might be surprised when I tell you that the Czech Republic is one of the few countries in the world that has a trade surplus, not a trade deficit, with Germany. This is also quite unique. But it’s not all about the economy, so let me turn to a couple of small curiosities which might be of interest for this audience. I believe some of you use contact lenses, which were invented by the Czech scientist Otto Wichterle, as well as nylon, for instance. The Czech scientist Jan Jansky was the first to classify blood into four groups.
a)  Minimum thresholds of common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital were set, as defined under the Basel III Accord, that have to be exceeded both in the comprehensive assessment, and in the baseline scenario of the stress test (8%); and another minimum threshold that has to be exceeded in the adverse scenario of the stress test (5.5%). b)  The banks falling short have to submit, within two weeks, a recapitalisation plan to be implemented within six months (if the capital shortfall arises from the asset  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  review or from the baseline scenario in the stress test) or nine months (if the capital shortfall arises from the adverse scenario). 6. Results at the European level  The results just disclosed show that, according to the methodology used, in the banking systems as a whole that are to be supervised by the Single Supervisory Mechanism – the ECB and the National Supervisory Authorities – 25 banks have a capital shortfall, assessed against the three thresholds set (in the AQR and in the baseline and adverse scenarios of the stress test). Of these 25 banks, 12 have already increased capital in 2014 to make good the shortfall, meaning there are only 13 banks that have to submit their plans to redress capital inadequacy. In total, the shortfall of these 25 banks amounted to € billion, but bearing in mind the capital increases already made, the shortfall currently stands at only € billion. 7.