I congratulate the Board, Senior Management team and the staff of INCOME, both past and present, for bringing INCOME to where it is today. 20. I wish you continued success in the years to come. BIS Review 163/2010  3
In Portugal, real GDP has started its recovery path, fiscal developments have been positive and the unemployment rate has started to fall. And consumer and business confidence has been on an upward trend for many months. A similar improvement in confidence has also occurred in other countries that had been affected by the crisis. Expectations regarding incomes and employment are steadily being upgraded. This is a sign that households and firms are starting to internalise the benefits of the reforms implemented so far. Looking ahead, the task of all euro area policymakers is to ensure that the improvement in confidence will be validated by actual outcomes. If implementation of structural reforms is pursued ambitiously and the reform momentum upheld, it seems likely that growth will surprise on the upside in the coming years. 3  See Varga J., J. in’t Ved (2013), The growth impact of structural reforms, Quarterly Report on the Euro Area, European Commission Vol. 12/4, page 17–27. BIS central bankers’ speeches  7