It is important that macroeconomic imbalances should be avoided and that a critical mass of structural reforms should support a sustainable growth path. This lesson holds particularly true for the emerging economies. Over the past several years, I have repeatedly pointed out in my speeches that convergence with the EU along with maintaining macroeconomic stability is the major challenge facing Romania. In recent years, fast-track economic growth drew on external saving. Banks became dependent on external financing and the current account deficit exceeded the sustainability limits, which caused the Romanian economy to grow vulnerable. The global crisis fostered this vulnerability which translated into a marked economic slowdown. Today it has become clear that the natural bias towards speeding up real convergence needs to be balanced by the need to ensure a sustainable convergence process. The NBR has repeatedly warned against the pro-cyclical nature of the fiscal policy, which added to excess demand. We should learn the lesson that allowing wide budget  4  BIS Review 56/2009  deficits while the economy is expanding ends in failure. It would have been much easier today for us to find the means to weather the crisis if our budget had been on a surplus over a two-year period prior to the unleashing of the crisis. 9. The adoption of the euro cannot be a substitute for the need of domestic policy adjustment. This lesson became clearer at the moment emerging economies were hit by the economic crisis.
As shown in the chart on the right of slide 4, this indicator reached unprecedented levels in early 2007 for the Japanese yen, suggesting that carry trading has grown significantly since the beginning of 2006. In Box 4 of the FSR, a close look is taken at the evolution of the foreign exchange carry trades. The conclusion is that, from a financial stability perspective, large outstanding carry trade positions may be a concern if they make the targeted financial markets vulnerable to unexpected changes either in short-term interest rates in the funding currency or exchange rate volatility. A pertinent issue for the outlook for financial stability is whether there have been signs of a turn in the US credit cycle. The assessment of the markets and banks appears, on the face of it, to be somewhat divided. For example, credit spreads on sub-investment grade bonds have narrowed further, but US banks are no longer easing their credit standards on loans granted to firms. The fundamentals of US firms have overall remained strong. Although rating downgrades have outpaced upgrades in the US credit market, this deterioration of credit quality has not translated into higher default rates. It has been suggested that the existence of abundant market liquidity is one of the reasons why rating agencies have, since late 2004, consistently revised their forecasts of rising global default rates, pushing them further into the future (see the chart on the left of slide 5).