requires, may restrict home ownership possibilities for some low - income groups. the bubble we have experienced should be a reminder to us that the alternative is much worse in the medium term for everybody. i am sure that we will agree that runaway growth in prices is the main factor that ultimately restricts the affordability of home ownership. in sum, banks perform an essential function in the economy. but to be able to provide the best service to society they must adhere to rigorous management principles, acting responsibly at all times. conclusions. let me conclude by once again thanking adicae for their invitation. i am certain this conference will be successful, giving the significance and topicality of the subjects on the agenda and the calibre of the speakers. if you will allow me, i would ask that this conference, as well as discussing past conflicts, should also reflect on the banking sector ’ s role in support of firms and consumers in the difficult setting shaped by the covid crisis. i think it would be good to try and learn from past errors and to attempt to put this climate of customer - bank confrontation behind us. we are ultimately all in the same boat, and we should exit this crisis together. thank you.

and - 2. 2 % for the current year and between - 0. 7 % and 0. 7 % for 2010. as for spain, next friday, repeating an initiative first launched two years back, we shall publish our projections for 2009 and 2010. i shall leave the specific figures for friday ’ s release. but the projections of the banco de espana will simply confirm that the spanish economy is immersed in a deep contraction, where the unemployment rate, if no measures are taken, will rise to a very worrying level and where practically the only positive features are the improvement in inflation and progress in the adjustment of the external sector. it is clear today that the various adverse shocks - both real and financial - triggered by the international crisis impacted the spanish economy when it was in the process of reabsorbing the imbalances it had built up during 15 years of high growth that had brought us progressively closer to the standards of the core eu countries. these external and domestic contractionary forces, having unfortunately superimposed themselves, sharply accelerated the adjustment, turning it into a deep recession similar to that affecting virtually all the developed economies. this recession, however, displays certain specific features in our country derived from the imbalances built up during the previous expansion and from the inadequacy of the measures adopted to strengthen our productive and market structures. in spain the contraction is affecting residential and real estate construction more severely. in these sectors excessive productive resources were concentrated and prices posted growth rates that were too high, taking them beyond levels consistent with their fundamentals. the high debt incurred by spanish households and firms, encouraged by overly accommodative financial conditions but also by optimistic expectations about future income, is now acting as a drag on their consumption and investment decisions. and further exacerbating this is the dizzying deterioration in confidence which, fuelled by the global climate of uncertainty, is pushing households and firms to postpone their spending plans and to strengthen their saving. pinpointing which specific mechanisms lie behind a certain type of behaviour of economic agents'confidence is always a complex task. but in the current circumstances, and especially in spain, it would not be hazardous to link much of the behaviour of confidence to that of employment. the intensity with which employment is shrinking is the most distinctive feature of the recession in spain. in this respect, it repeats traditional patterns of behaviour and shows the persistent weaknesses in the institutional structure of our labour markets that must be corrected. the best way to restore confidence in