The celebrated Lisbon Strategy has turned into a farce; many of the structural reforms that it outlined would be beneficial economically, but few of them have been realised or at least enforced by the agent, the European Commission. On the other hand, the EU institutions have repeatedly shown an ability to produce bizarre pieces of legislation that would hardly ever be passed at the national level in any given member state. The famous Czech writer Milan Kundera would probably call it the “unbearable lightness of legislating”. So my suspicion is that the EU is now in a position where it is easier to integrate than to liberalise. And these are two different things in terms of long-term economic growth, as I have argued. What a shame for the EU and for us. Thank you for your attention. BIS Review 165/2009  3
In the short term, the most significant cause for concern in the US economy is that employment is still weak. Of course, the combination of rapid growth in GDP and a weak labour market mean that productivity growth is good, but the dismal labour market situation could nevertheless create uncertainty among households and contribute to subduing consumption. However, it is difficult to believe that it would put an end to the upturn we are seeing now. There are also signs of an upturn in the euro area now, although the picture is not as clear-cut as in the United States. Business tendency surveys for industry show an increased optimism, while industrial production is slowly beginning to rise. Developments in Asia, central and eastern Europe also appear to be slightly stronger than was previously assumed. However, the stronger euro may lead to a slightly slower upturn in the euro area. All in all, the picture of international economic activity now looks somewhat brighter than we anticipated in December. The upturn in economic activity appears to be proceeding roughly as we had anticipated it would. The Swedish economy has also turned We assumed in the December Inflation Report that growth in Sweden would gradually increase during the course of 2003 and would amount to 1.5 per cent for the whole year. During 2004 and 2005 growth was expected to be around 2.5 per cent, which is in total a slightly more rapid rate than the Riksbank considers sustainable in the long-term without inflation rising.