Emerging countries continue to record high growth rates, but this momentum is weakening and in 2014 this weakness may become more pronounced. In the euro area in a scenario of weak economic growth and despite the improvement since summer 2012, monetary and financial markets remain fragmented and the uncertainty about monetary union and governance of the European Union has not been completely dispelled. In Spain, we have made significant progress in correcting the imbalances affecting our capacity to grow and I think we are on the right path to achieving a recovery of activity and the creation of employment on a sound basis. However, it will be essential not to abandon the policy of reforms aimed at increasing the flexibility of our economy and at boosting competitiveness. The fundamental task outstanding for the Banco de España is, with the help and close cooperation of the Government and the resolute support of the banking sector, to complete the balance sheet clean-up of our banking system, affording it the utmost solvency, efficiency and transparency. This target, to bring about a system that fulfils its key function to intermediate between savers and investors and which enjoys the full trust of customers and depositors, will, with hard work and rigour, be within our reach. But we will need something more: to restore economic growth, revive investment, create jobs and overcome the banking and financial crisis, we require legal security. I take this opportunity to request that you work resolutely to safeguard and strengthen it. Thank you for your attention.
In any  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  event, as it takes a long time for any drive of this nature to mature, it is also in everybody’s interest to set about studying and putting in place the necessary arrangements as soon as possible. Progress in correcting the external imbalance It is in the external sector where the swiftest and sharpest correction of imbalances is being made. The adjustment in the external sector continued in 2012 and, as a result, after posting a surplus in the second half of the year (an unprecedented development since the launch of EMU), the current account was practically in balance, with a deficit of only 0.2% of GDP for the year as a whole. Current forecasts point to surpluses on the current account for 2013, 2014 and successive years. In addition to the contraction in imports attributable to the fall-off in domestic spending, this performance reflects the restoring of the competitiveness lost by the Spanish economy during the expansion that ended in 2008. By late 2012, two-thirds of the gap built up since 2000 between Spanish unit labour costs and those for the euro area on average had already been corrected. These gains in competitiveness have been accompanied, in the most recent period, by notable growth in the number of exporting firms and by greater geographical diversification of our exports, with an ever-increasing weight of those targeted on emerging markets.