a concomitant rise in the supply of and demand for securitised products globally. in the case of asia excess savings was mainly channelled into us government bonds and agency debt as a result of exchange rate interventions with the public sector acting as intermediary in the presence of less developed and less open domestic financial markets. securitised products were quite eagerly snapped up elsewhere, as we know, mainly remaining on the balance sheets of financial intermediaries, at least until the public sector had to step in as this episode of international risk sharing – or rather risk concentration – ended in tears. see e. g. moutot et al. ( 2007 ). the use of eaa during the financial crisis as i have argued at the beginning of my talk, the euro area accounts may have seen the light of day at the best possible moment, as the financial crisis broke, which boosted the demand for this kind of data. at the same time, in other respects it might have been the worst possible moment. in a crisis, attention is naturally focused on the latest data. by the time the eaa arrive, with a lag currently of around four months, the situation may have already changed dramatically. thus the headline “ news ” content is limited in relation to complementing the monetary data, which comes out within a month, and with respect to euro area gdp and national account data available at national level. moreover, as a relatively new dataset, it is not " tried and tested ” and, for now, the comparability with other data remains limited in some dimensions. the accounts are presented in nominal terms and as four - quarter - sums, in the absence of a split into prices and volumes and lacking seasonal adjustment for the time being. other issues relate to the degree to which the principle of market valuation ( rather than book values ) can be applied across the accounts and the degree to which sectoral information consolidates intra - sectoral flows and balance sheets in practice. finally, the balancing of the accounts between the financial side and the non - financial side under the joint responsibility of eurostat and the ecb truly represents a challenge of historic dimension. the remaining discrepancies for the household and non - financial corporations sectors provide a measure of additional efforts needed in reconciling the accounts. as i have stressed before, the national accounts are useful not only as a framework for putting together what we know, but also for identifying what we do not yet

to msmes seeking financing during the covid - 19 pandemic period, primarily for short - term working capital needs and medium - term productive business investments. these programmes have been fully disbursed, and the central bank is currently collaborating with the government of barbados to negotiate a third round of funding from the idb for usd 50 million, which will have an expanded focus of : 1 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches 1. enhancing export readiness and diversification, innovative investment, food security, and climate adaptation ; 2. increasing the financial inclusion of women - led / owned business and persons with disabilities ; and 3. leveraging technical assistance to support capacity building and training of msmes. since the launch of the ecgf a decade ago, i can confidently state the operation of the ecgf has achieved its general objective of enhancing msme's access to muchneeded loan funding. in fact, during this period, the central bank has approved 326 guarantees totalling over usd 65 million for loans from eight participating financial institutions. furthermore, during the second loan programme to provide financing support during the covid - 19 pandemic, there was an increased demand for guarantees on loans to the renewable energy sector, which represented one - third of the total guaranteed amount. i am hearted that this sector is also posed to receive additional support in the third round of idb funding support. it is evident that idb continues to be a valuable development partner that is instrumental to barbados achieving its sustainable development goals. we will endeavour to maintain our strong collaboration into the future, and to provide the required support for our small business sector. we are heartened by the participation of the msmes and their financial institutions, including the enterprise growth fund limited, which has a mandate of providing financing to small businesses working capital purposes across the various economic sectors, including the renewable energy sector. i look forward to hearing first - hand the financial institutions'and businesses'experiences with the ecgf and to a lively dialogue on the important topic of access to financing for msmes. once again, welcome to everyone. 2 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches