Since the beginning of 2013, Spain has experienced a decrease in its unemployment rate of some 6 percentage points and Spanish growth is nowadays one of the main drivers of the European recovery. Contrary to preconceptions, France has also demonstrated in the past its capacity to meet the challenge of economic and social reform. In the 1990s, to prepare for the introduction of the euro, France pursued a competitive disinflation policy that proved highly effective. Remember that in the late 1990s, France experienced the highest GDP growth and the weakest inflation rate among European countries, along with a significant fall in its unemployment rate. Today, French reforms are heading in the right direction, [Slide 5] in particular the tax credit for competitiveness and investment (CICE) and the Responsibility and Solidarity Pact (RSP) that enhance the competitive strength of the French economy. A policy of administrative simplification, the so-called ‘simplification shock’, and a new law to sustain economic growth and entrepreneurship (‘loi Macron’), are also being conducted in order to rebuild business confidence. However, we are not there yet and a number of reforms need to be complemented. In particular, in the labour market: hopefully renewed progress will be made with the draft law under discussion in Parliament. Finally, in the euro area, fiscal policy is now more balanced since significant adjustment has already been achieved. Structural efforts and a growth recovery have led to a reduction in deficits and to a stabilisation in the ratio of debt to GDP.
2 CGFS (2015), ‘Regulatory change and monetary policy’, CGFS Papers No. 54, Committee on the Global  Financial System, Bank for International Settlements. 3 ICMA (2017), Regulatory Policy Newsletter, January. 5/5  BIS central bankers' speeches