current account deficit in the months to come. another noteworthy development are rising oil prices from some 10 us - dollar per barrel in the late 90ies, to some 80 us - dollar today. at first, rising oil prices led to a significant worsening of trade balances for energy importers, and to considerable trade balance improvements for oil exporters, which were perceived as a mainly cyclical development. in the meantime, high oil prices are perceived as a rather structural and probably lasting event, which is going to allow oil exporters to spend more of their energy - related income on imports, thereby ameliorating global imbalances. finally, let me also touch upon the euro area. for several years the euro area ’ s balance of payments has been broadly balanced. nevertheless, the euro area has to contribute to and prepare for the orderly resolution of the global imbalances. why? because ultimately, the – at least in the longer term – necessary rebalancing of the imbalances will be accompanied by significant shifts of productive factors from and to tradedand non - traded sectors, respectively shifting resources between export orientated - and domestic demand orientated sectors. in particular, this will hold true for countries with large current account imbalances, but also for the euro area, as there are significant current account imbalances within our region. as you would expect, flexible and productive economies with sound and well structured public finances certainly will cope better with these challenges. albeit important structural reforms in europe have been implemented already, much remains to be done in order to improve potential growth, thereby reducing growth differentials lastingly. we have to respond with policies designed to use opportunities of globalization, particularly to increase productivity and competitiveness, while minimizing unavoidable adjustment costs. the right answer to globalization and international competition is therefore to continue and intensify the lisbon process already mentioned. there is no doubt that globalization has worked well for the people of europe. after nearly nine years of experience, economic and monetary union has proven to be europe ’ s most forceful strategic response to global economic change. however, we have to concede that big changes rarely only create winners. in many eu countries, regrettably, people are critical and see little benefit from globalization. there has been an undue proliferation of fears that increased import competition from low - wage countries would put too much pressure on domestic producers and workers and that economic activity would allegedly be relocated abroad. sometimes, these concerns have

emu ”, which rests on three pillars : a monetary policy oriented to price stability, a fiscal policy geared towards sound public finances ( the so called “ stability and growth pact ” ) and structural policies designed to foster competitiveness and sustainable economic growth ( the “ lisbon agenda ” ). the monetary policy framework of the eurosystem is based on central bank independence, transparency, accountability and an explicit mandate to maintain price stability. the eurosystem goes to great lengths to communicate the ecb ’ s monetary policy strategy, the rationale for monetary policy decisions and our assessment of economic developments. these communication efforts not only take the form of regular testimonies in the european and national parliaments, periodic bulletins and speeches, but also take place in “ real time ” : ecb president jean - claude trichet explains the monetary policy decisions and the underlying reasoning in press conferences which take place immediately after governing council meetings and which provide “ question and answer sessions ” for journalists. in today ’ s euro area, about 317 million people in 13 countries benefit from a low inflation environment and stable inflation expectations, a high degree of confidence in their currency and moderate interest rates – all of which are elements of a business and investment - friendly economic environment. emu and the euro can be seen as one of the eu ’ s most important strategic responses to the chances and challenges of a globalized world. since 1999, we have experienced a number of important shocks to the global economy, such as the millennium challenge, substantial oil price increases, the ups and downs of the euro exchange rate, the equity market boom and bust, global imbalances and the clouds of war and terrorism. amidst all of this, the governing council of the european central bank ( ecb ) has guided inflation expectations in a firmly manner consistent with price stability and thus provided a reliable anchor for the euro area economy, while the euro has sheltered euro area financial markets against those shocks. not least because of the growing international use of the euro, the stability culture formed by the single currency has already brought positive benefits to the non - euro area eu member states and many eastern european, middle eastern and african countries. moreover, the euro area has overcome a few years of economic sluggishness to become an ever larger player in the global economy, thereby contributing positively to a rebalancing in global economic growth. economic activity, in fact, accelerated to 2. 9 % last year, and since the start of monetary union real gdp growth has