8  See, for example, Genre, V., R. Gomez-Salvador and A. Lamo (2005): “European Women: Why do(n’t) they work”, ECB Working Paper Series, No 454, March 2005. 9  For a further extension of this topic see European Commission (2004), “The link between product market reforms and productivity: direct and indirect impacts”, the EU Economy: 2004 Review. 10  See for example G. Nicoletti and S. Scarpetta (2003): “Regulation, Productivity and Growth: OECD Evidence”, OECD Economics Department Working Paper No 347, P. Cavelaars (2003), “Does Competition Enhancement Have Permanent Inflation Effects?”, Kyklos, 56 (1) and M. Przybyla and M. Roma (2005), “Does product market competition reduce inflation? Evidence from EU countries and sectors”, ECB Working Paper No 453. BIS Review 44/2006  3  changes in some services sectors and thus temporarily on aggregate inflation. Overall, a higher level of competition in the services sector would tend to support more efficient and flexible services markets, facilitate adjustment processes and increase the resilience of the euro area to economic shocks 11 . In this context, an internal market for services and the adoption of the Services Directive would constitute an important step forward. It would remove barriers to cross-border provision of services and make it easier to set up services businesses in other Member States. In the EU, some progress has already been made in improving the functioning of product markets. For example, several network industries, like telecommunications and air transport, are now fully or largely open to competition.
The EMU countries that are less dynamic and with lower growth potential think that they had to deal with higher interest rates than were suitable for them, owing to the fact that the more dynamic countries had a tendency for higher inflation than them. And this is also true. Both views are true. The lesson we should all draw is that, on one hand, the less dynamic countries have their work in terms of structural reforms: more privatisation, more competition, a greater weight of the private sector in the economy, etc. to increase their growth potential. And, on the other, the countries with more inflationary tendencies should, as I said a couple of weeks ago in Zaragoza, pursue their own structural reforms, reforming labour institutions, the rental market, etc. so that increases in demand, arising from relatively low rates, cannot generate inflation. The celebration of these ten years is taking place just as the global macroeconomic scenario has undergone a deep-seated change as a result of the financial crisis, leaving it covered in great uncertainty and powerful recessionary tendencies. Now, those who are against a single  2  BIS Review 24/2009  monetary policy underscore the uneven impact that changes in the world economy can have on euro area members, as these are deprived of the macroeconomic stabilisation instrument that national monetary policies provided. Once again, this is not an argument against EMU but one in favour of accelerating structural reforms.