is required to restore competitiveness has already been achieved. some of the agreed structural reforms will only make themselves felt in the long term, but others, such as efforts to make the labour market more flexible, can immediately strengthen confidence. the funding of such deficits of fiscally weak euro countries are visible in the huge balances of the target payment system. would the eurosystem have already collapsed without this rescue system, this bailout? i cannot see any bailout there. we have a currency union and a payment system which is organised by the ecb as a single platform. and there are payment flows from one country to another. the fact that these balances arise at all is because of the disturbed conditions in the money market, in which banks distrust each other. rather than lending money to each other, they borrow it from the central bank and deposit it there too. bis central bankers ’ speeches does that not entail enormous risks for central banks, at which target claims are mounting up because of the imbalances? for the bundesbank alone, they amount to almost €500 billion. there are no risks in a cohesive monetary union. there are certainly grounds to monitor the imbalances, because in a currency union with a well - functioning interbank market, the target claims would not become so large in the first place. do you expect the target balances to disappear again one day? yes, of course. we have seen in the past that imbalances recede whenever the situation improves. in december the ecb provided financing of almost €500 billion for the unusually long period of three years. the second operation of this kind, which will be conducted at the end of february, could be of a similar magnitude. can you understand that these large sums make many people feel uneasy, and lead them to wonder if they will one day have to foot the bill? it is important to explain things well. that ’ s why the media are so important. only we are worried too, unfortunately. the net inflow from the first three - year tender, at a good €200 billion, was not that high. there is no sign of inflationary tendencies in the euro area, quite the opposite. and if there should be any sign of future inflation, we have the instruments with which to absorb the liquidity again within a short space of time. but with the longer - term refinancing operations, the ecb also relaxed the collateral framework. we have made

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