both externally and internally. all four aspects are integral to the rebalancing process. sustainable rebalancing requires that adjustment is stable, symmetrical and structural. only under those conditions can all economies achieve full employment in a way that is robust to global developments. so what do we see in the euro area today? progress with rebalancing the imbalances that built up in the euro area before the crisis were sizeable. current account deficits in the five ( former ) programme countries – greece, portugal, ireland, spain and cyprus – had doubled from, on average, around 5 % of gdp in 2000 to about 10 % of gdp in 2008. moreover, those imbalances were financed largely by volatile, debt - based cross - border flows. that left several countries vulnerable to a rapid reversal in financing, with little ex - post sharing of risks between private borrowers and lenders – a so - called “ sudden stop ”. since then, we have seen considerable flow improvements, especially in the countries that entered the crisis with large current account deficits. deficits in the ( former ) programme countries have adjusted dramatically. on average they are in balance today. only greece and cyprus are still recording small deficits, while the other countries have moderate surpluses. in the three baltic countries the improvement was even more dramatic, averaging 17 percentage points since 2007. the composition of adjustment has also been encouraging. aside from ireland and, to some extent, the baltics, import compression played a strong role in closing current account deficits in the first phase of the crisis. but since 2012, improvements in deficit countries have been driven predominantly by robust growth in exports. the previous dramatic fall in internal demand in stressed countries had in fact not only depressed imports. it had pushed firms to look for new international markets as well. 1 demand for exports in deficit countries has also been supported by intra - euro area rebalancing. in particular, though germany continues to run a record overall current account surplus, its trade surplus vis - a - vis the euro area has diminished. it fell from close to 4 % of gdp in late 2007 to around 1 % of gdp today. 2 imports from the euro area have also increased notably. in this sense there has been some symmetry in the adjustment process. see bobeica, e., esteves, p. s., rua, a. and staehr, k. ( 2015 ), “ exports and domestic demand pressure :

is not only essential for their own stability and growth. it is also key to creating the conditions for completing monetary union in a way that will prevent imbalances from emerging again. the full potential of using the macroeconomic imbalance procedure to strengthen euro area surveillance has so far not been realised, neither for preventing nor for correcting imbalances. from now on, it is important that its corrective arm is used forcefully and without exception as soon as excessive imbalances which endanger the smooth functioning of emu are identified. the roadmap to a complete monetary union is there : it was laid out in the recent five presidents ’ report. but the political will to enact it will not exist unless economic divergences are first ironed out. it is clear that monetary union cannot now be built from behind the veil of ignorance. but all countries can take measures to make their economic policies converge and reduce foreseeable risks, which is what makes mutual insurance possible. ultimately, it is economic divergence that fuels political divergence, and this is what makes the euro area so fragile. sustainable rebalancing is the first step towards avoiding such divergence. see cœure, b. ( 2015 ), op. cit. bis central bankers ’ speeches