We need to avoid having ex ante criteria that are so strict that in practice they prevent the ESM from being used preventively. These actions should also be supplemented by a common fiscal capacity: these words are probably less contentious than a common “budget”, but as the President of the ECB wrote last week, we shouldn’t shy away from its stabilisation function. If so, it would support the single monetary policy and price stability. ** I will conclude by quoting President Mário Soares, one of the key actors of Portugal's accession to the European Community: “Recent history has shown that rather than deferring crises we must confront them head on, with a determination to overcome them9”. Let us face the challenges for 2019 with this determined spirit: Brexit and the European elections as well as national domestic elections including in Portugal, and now in Spain. Our role as European central bank is to be faithful to our mandate while remaining totally independent. But we also have to be more attentive than ever to our environment: we have to be ready to react in response to economic uncertainties, and we must plead for a sensible strengthening of European sovereignty. Thank you for your attention. [i] See Article 127 of The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. [ii] Hartmann, Philipp, Smets, Frank, “The first twenty years of the European Central Bank: monetary policy”, ECB Working Paper Series, No 2219, December 2018.
10  BIS Review 145/2009  Table 2 Economic growth, current account and inflation (annual change, percentage) 2007  2008  2009 (f)  2010 (f)  GDP  4.7  3.2  -2.0 to -1,5  4.5 to 5.5  Domestic demand Domestic demand (w/o change in inventories) Gross fixed capital formation Total consumption Goods and services exports Goods and services imports  7.8 8.2 12.0 7.1 7.6 14.9  7.4 7.9 19.5 4.2 3.1 12.9  -6.2 -3.5 -12.9 0.0 -4.7 -13.8  6.7 3.7 7.4 2.5 4.9 9.0  Current account (% of GDP)  4.4  -2.0  1.9  1.2  CPI inflation December CPI inflation CPIX inflation December CPIX inflation CPIX1 inflation December CPIX1 inflation  4.4 7.8 4.0 6.3 4.1 6.3  8.7 7.1 8.4 8.6 7.8 7.7  1.7 -0.8 2.8 -1.2 2.8 -0.6  1.5 2.8 1.0 2.6 1.2 2.6  (f) Forecast. Source: Central Bank of Chile. BIS Review 145/2009  11