##c has the initiative and capability to define the pan - european schemes for credit transfers, direct debits and cards. however, since the epc has no power to enforce, it would have to rely on the cooperation of the banking sector and infrastructures. the ecb, in cooperation with the eurosystem ncbs, stands ready for facilitating the implementation of the sepa objectives and for fostering the full adoption of the project which it considers key for achieving financial integration. concluding remarks ladies and gentlemen, i have explained why the ecb attaches utmost importance to progress in european financial integration and i have talked about the various channels we have at our disposal for fostering it. in describing the present state of affairs, i have also given the main examples where the ecb actively contributes to european financial integration. at the same time, i have made it clear that the ecb expects continued efforts from the private sector and i have mentioned the substantial opportunities of, but also the challenges to, the relevant public policy framework. the ecb has demonstrated since the first days of its existence that it is a credible and solid anchor for monetary stability. financial institutions and market participants know also that they can count on the ecb to be in the domain of financial integration a very strong pillar to sustain their efforts and to facilitate the success of this important european endeavour. thank you very much for your attention.

allow european firms to exploit the benefits of new technologies to their full extent. 4. productivity and the single market for the ecb, long - term growth prospects matter, but our main focus is of course on inflation developments. let me therefore now turn to the role of productivity in shaping inflation source : european commission. eu klems database. see oliner and sichel ( 2002 ), “ information technology and productivity : where are we now and where are we going? ” federal reserve board. see also jorgenson, d., m. s. ho and k. stiroh ( 2002 ), “ information technology, education, and the sources of economic growth across u. s. industries ”, mimeo. ict investment represented roughly 3 % of gdp in the united states compared with 1. 5 % in the euro area over the period 1980 - 2005 ( source : oecd productivity database ). basu, s., j. fernald, n. oulton, and s. srinivasan. 2003, “ the case of the missing productivity growth : or, does information technology explain why productivity accelerated in the united states but not the united kingdom? ”, nber macroeconomics annual. see for, example, van ark, bart and inklaar, robert, 2006, “ catching up or getting stuck? europe ’ s troubles to exploit ict ’ s productivity potential ”, ggdc research memorandum gd - 79, groningen growth and development centre, university of groningen. dynamics and some characteristics of inflation in services more generally. i will touch on inflation at an area - wide level, but also – and mainly – on inflation differentials within monetary union. at an area - wide level, unit labour costs resulting from wage and productivity developments are a key predictor of inflation. wage increases not covered by productivity gains push up production costs, which eventually add to price pressures. when looking at price developments across sectors, it appears that in the euro area, the prices of services have increased faster than the prices of goods over the last two decades. evidence of this inflation gap can be found by looking at the main hicp components and gross value added deflators. for instance, when using the gdp deflator at factor cost, inflation in private sector services has been on average 0. 8 percentage points higher than in the manufacturing sector. 11 similar developments have been found for the us and other industrialised economies, but the gap in the euro area has