To a certain extent, these high growth figures were of course a natural consequence of the major fall in GDP in late 2008 and early 2009. But, in contrast to many other countries, GDP in Sweden also began to exceed its pre-crisis level relatively quickly (see Figure 1). BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Figure 1. GDP in Sweden and abroad Index, Q4 2007=100 106  106 UK Euro area  104  104  USA Sweden  102  102  100  100  98  98  96  96  94  94  92  92 07  08  09  10  11  12  13  Note. Seasonally-adjusted data Sources: Statistics Sweden and national sources. However, despite the relatively favourable development of GDP, it seems that unemployment has become entrenched at a high level. Initially unemployment increased less than we expected given the substantial fall in GDP – it peaked at 9 per cent in early 2010 – but since then it has fallen no lower than 7.6 per cent (see Figure 2). In my view, this is a level that is much higher than what can be considered a long-run sustainable unemployment rate.1 Figure 2. Unemployment in Sweden Per cent of labour force 9  9 Average 1999-2012 Unemployment  8  8  7  7  6  6  5  5 05  06  07  08  09  10  11  12  13  Note.
Convergence Programs of the new Member States should include ambitious Medium Term Objectives to ensure that not only the Maastricht criteria are met, but most importantly, the emergence of excessive deficit situations is avoided and the risks of taking recourse to exchange rate adjustments after joining the ERM2 (and, eventually, the euro area) are minimized. The well functioning single market for all goods and services, including infrastructure networks, as well as pursuing the National Reform Programmes in the context of the reinforced Lisbon agenda is the other pillar for the success of the euro area and for the new Member States in particular. Estonia has been a de facto member of the euro area since the inception of its independent currency in 1992. Fixing the local currency to D-mark, and later to the euro meant that the monetary policy decisions were not made in Estonia. Estonia's currency board regime implies prudent fiscal stance that has been largely adhered to since 1992, resulting in our general government having accumulated a relatively large net asset position of around 10 percent of GDP. A solid budgetary position and early deregulation of product and capital markets implies that Estonia has been well placed to absorb both positive and negative shocks during the last 15 years. Deregulation and reform in preparation of the EU membership has allowed us to fully integrate our economic and financial systems with the Single Market. However, that kind of approach requires, in today's conjuncture, forward-looking structural reforms in almost all EU member states, e.g.