However, it is interesting to note that emerging market economies also enjoyed a Great Moderation, but it came in the second half of the 1990s, much later than in developed economies, which coincides also with the time in which inflation was conquered, supporting the hypothesis that it was good policies rather than good luck (De Gregorio, 2008). It is easy to discredit the Great Moderation in the current juncture. However, the resilience of emerging market economies to the global crisis was impressive. Indeed, emerging markets had a recession, but much milder than in the past and with a remarkable recovery. And this was, of course, the consequence of much better macroeconomic management. The case of Chile illustrates this point. We did suffer a recession, but the size of the initial impact and the speed of the recovery were quite different from previous episodes. In the second half of 1998, affected by the Asian Crisis, Chilean GDP fell by 4.3% quarter to quarter. Returning to the initial GDP level took us one year. But, comparatively, the unemployment rate more than doubled between the beginning of 1998 and mid-1999, reaching almost 12% and staying high, around 9.5%, until 2005. The effects of the 2008–2009 crisis were very different. Economic activity fell, but less than in the previous episode, by 3% between the end of 2008 and mid-2009. The recovery was much faster and only two quarters after the downturn, by the end of 2009, GDP was comparable to the precrisis level.
It has clearly emerged from the discussion today that post-trade harmonisation is gaining momentum and achieving concrete results. The example we heard about in more detail is the progress made on the T2S harmonisation agenda. The T2S Community and the post-trade industry have engaged in the implementation of harmonised standards and market practice in areas such as cut-off times, ISO messages, corporate actions processing, account numbering and settlement finality. As Jean-Michel Godeffroy illustrated earlier today, there is an ambitious plan in place for the coming months and a sound record of achievement so far. I noted that the audience expressed moderate optimism that the “priority one harmonisation topics” would be achieved by the launch of T2S. However, there is still a lot of work to be done in order to complete all these projects. It was very interesting in this regard to hear about the experience of Professor Giovannini, whose very name is closely associated with harmonisation and market integration. In particular, he analysed the problems faced by the Giovannini Group in the early 2000s. These reflections are very important for us now to learn from past experiences and to be able to achieve concrete results going forward. The large participation at this conference today, with distinguished speakers and almost 250 participants from all over Europe, is testimony to the joint willingness of both the European and national institutions and market players to achieve post-trade harmonisation, and thus contribute to financial integration in Europe.