jean - claude trichet : interview with il sole 24 ore interview with mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, and il sole 24 ore, conducted by mr beda romano, published on 9 april 2009. * * * the g20 meeting in london has just finished. a joint strategy between the largest countries in the world has been devised, even if drive is sometimes lacking in many areas. what is your judgement of this, at least with regard to international cooperation? this meeting represents a very, very important turning - point in the area of international cooperation. the g20 now seems to be an indispensable forum in the management of this crisis. it has to be said that the g20 is not a totally new informal institution. it actually came into being at the end of the 1990s as a reaction to the asian crisis and also proved to be very useful at that time. but now it has made a clear jump in quality, complementing very significantly the g7 or the g8. so, the meeting in london was a very important, historic occasion. many decisions were taken : new financial rules, new money for the international monetary fund, a new, more structured set - up for the financial stability forum. which are the most important? i would not focus on one particular measure. they are all important and are viewed together. it seems to me that they cover all the most relevant aspects of this crisis. what is now important is that they are introduced quickly, rapidly and as professionally as possible. at this point it is also important to progressively introduce anti - cyclical measures, in particular in the area of regulations. do you mean by any chance that, in spite of everything that has happened, governments have been slow to introduce measures to alleviate the effects of the crisis and to help the economy and the financial system? i wouldn ’ t say that the governments have been slow. i would say rather that at the global level – and thus also at the level of the euro area – they have not been quick enough to be entirely convincing in the eyes of economic agents. a great deal of support has been decided – in the eu, it represents 23 % of gdp – but it has not always been implemented in an effective manner. and this is why the measures agreed in london must be introduced quickly, rapidly and in the most professional way possible. and yet, jurgen stark, member of the ecb ’ s executive board, has criticised the decision to increase

in the number of failures. until the middle of last september, the crisis was largely financial. you will recall that until the failure of a systemic us institution, the emerging economies had not been affected, or barely, by the economic slowdown. following the bankruptcy of the us investment bank, the crisis suddenly worsened and spread throughout the whole world, affecting not only the financial system but also the real economy at the same time. a type of adverse feed - back loop was thus created, which has characterised the last two quarters. i repeat : we are in a period of market correction which is still under way and is of a very great magnitude. in this context, the hypothesis is being discussed in many countries of just nationalising the banks. some say that this would be a way of giving back confidence to the markets and to investors, which are still concerned that credit institutions remain too fragile. what do you think of this? when speaking of nationalisation, there are two options. the first option is that the state takes control of a bank, but without changing the legal framework. the company would remain governed by private law and the government is a simple shareholder. the second option is that the state changes the very nature of the credit institution, which becomes governed by public law. from my point of view, if state control were to prove necessary, it would by far be preferable it to be carried out on the basis of the first option. the aim is thus to guarantee a temporary state presence in the company, giving the government an exit strategy? precisely. the credibility of the choices is also dependent on the existence of a strategy to return to a normal situation. in the same way that we, as a central bank, have to have an exit strategy from monetary policy in exceptional times, governments must think of an exit strategy from extraordinary measures of economic policy. for monetary policy, “ exit strategy ” means that interest rates cannot fall any further? for central banks exit strategy means the clear path for unwinding the unconventional measures taken. this is essential to guarantee our fellow citizens that they can count on us not only to take today ’ s bold decisions but to make sure that price stability is ensured in the medium and long run. coming back to nationalisations, do you believe that public control of the banks is inevitable in order to get out of this crisis? in these circumstances it is very important to be humble. and to look at the facts and the figures in each particular case. there is