And if we focus on infrastructure, which is so important for any country's growth potential, the last 20 years have seen the weight of investment in infrastructure in Spain far exceed the European Union average. Specifically, over the past two decades, the weight of public investment in GDP in Spain has held, year by year, at 1.25 pp above the European Union average. That has allowed almost full convergence in terms of our public capital endowment, in proportion to our population, with the core European countries. From this standpoint, which we should not lose sight of, I shall refer to the economic and financial situation in Europe and to recent developments in the Spanish economy, with particular reference to economic policies and to the draft budget for 2014. To conclude I have some comments, which I feel bound to make, on the headway in our bank restructuring. The euro area For some months, the economic and financial situation in Europe has shown some improvement, against an international background marked by signs of recovery in the United States and Japan, and by some loss of momentum in the emerging economies, most particularly China. Following six consecutive quarters of contraction, euro area GDP growth has moved back into positive territory. Underpinning this change in sign is a pick-up in internal demand, which has added to the progress in net exports.
Norman T L Chan: Symposium on Financial Stability – opening remarks Opening remarks by Mr Norman T L Chan, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, at the HKMA Financial Stability Symposium, Hong Kong, 30 May 2013. *  *  *  Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, 1. Welcome to the HKMA Financial Stability Symposium. The Symposium marks the 20th Anniversary of the HKMA, which is a very young central banking institution comparing with its peers. It is very timely and appropriate for the HKMA to convene this Symposium on Financial Stability because Hong Kong, like many of our Asian neighbours, have learnt from our own bitter experience in the few years after 1997 just how painful and devastating financial crisis can become. So it is clearly our common wish to do what we can to reduce the risks of financial crisis recurring or at least mitigate the damage that it can cause to the financial system and the economy when it occurs. 2. In this connection, it may perhaps be useful to look back and observe how the mainstream thinking on financial stability have changed or evolved since the time when the HKMA was set up in 1993. I would list a couple of key issues below: (i)  there was the belief that financial crises would only occur in the developing economies because they had weak financial institutions and poor regulatory regimes. Advanced economies would be immune as they had mature financial institutions and robust regulatory systems.