, at 25 years, the euro has reached young adulthood. it has not only fulfilled its primary purpose – maintaining price stability – but it has also demonstrated sufficient resilience to withstand several shocks, crises and challenges. during turbulent episodes in particular, the euro has served as a key economic anchor not only for countries within but also outside the euro area, especially in cesee. in addition to being a global currency, the euro has become a symbol of unity and of european integration. and it is a testament to europe's commitment to a shared future. the second historic moment for europe, just a few years after the euro had been introduced, was the european union's " big bang " - style eastern enlargement in 2004, when eight central and eastern european countries joined the eu. this marked the most significant expansion in the history of the eu, bringing in nations that had long 2 / 7 bis - central bankers'speeches been on the periphery of european integration. a few years later, three more cesee countries became eu members, and today, several other countries in the region are preparing to join the club in the foreseeable future. for many of these countries, eu membership represents the culmination of years of reform, democratization and economic restructuring. but it also raises important questions about their future monetary paths – specifically, whether and when they would join the euro area. in principle, all eu member states are obliged to introduce the euro once they fulfill the convergence criteria. the only exception in legal terms is denmark, whose " opt - out clause " exempts the country from the obligation to adopt the euro. of the eight cesee countries that joined the eu in 2004, five have since adopted the euro. slovenia was first in 2007, followed by slovakia in 2009, estonia in 2011, latvia in 2014 and lithuania in 2015. more recently, we have seen further progress. croatia became a member of the euro area in 2023. and bulgaria has been preparing for euro are membership ; it started participating in the exchange rate mechanism ii in july 2020. the path toward euro area membership remains open and attainable for those willing to meet the necessary criteria. each of the new member countries underwent a rigorous process of economic convergence to meet the maastricht criteria and align their monetary policies with those of the eurosystem. their experiences offer valuable insights into the benefits and challenges of joining and functioning within the euro area, insights that are particularly relevant for countries that have yet to become

is likely to continue recovering on the back of increasing exports and accommodative monetary policy. it must be added, however, that in the labor market employment conditions have not improved greatly, with unemployment, for example, remaining at a high level. consequently, balance - sheet adjustments in the household sector – that is, the restoration of financial health, including the repayment of household debt – are unlikely to gather pace, so that the pace of recovery is likely to remain moderate. economic activity in the euro area as a whole has been recovering moderately, with some differences in growth by country : germany has performed strongly while other countries have lagged behind. although the pace has been slowing, exports and production have continued to increase, while domestic demand components, such as private consumption, have been rising from the previous quarter. for the present, the euro area is likely to continue recovering moderately. however, attention needs to be paid to the effects of fiscal bis central bankers ’ speeches consolidation, which from next year will start in earnest also in the major economies, and to volatility in financial markets due to concerns over the public and private debt problems in some of the peripheral countries. b. emerging and commodity - exporting economies although emerging and commodity - exporting economies are often grouped together, they are a diverse group. here, i will focus on the major east asian economies, since they are most relevant to japan. first, the chinese economy has continued to show high growth of around 10 percent. although the pace of increase in exports has been slowing due to a deceleration in overseas economies such as the united states, domestic demand, as indicated by retail sales and investment in fixed assets, has continued to show high growth. like china, south korea, taiwan, thailand, and other nies and asean countries also experienced continued economic growth driven by domestic demand, although inventory adjustments in it - related goods are casting a shadow on the outlook for exports. overall, it is very likely that emerging and commodity - exporting economies will continue to show relatively high growth due to robust domestic demand and capital inflows from overseas. the pace of growth of the chinese economy is likely to decelerate somewhat due, among other things, to government measures to restrain the increase in real estate transactions. however, given the continuing increase in private consumption, growth is nevertheless likely to remain relatively high. economic conditions in the nies and asean countries are expected to follow a recovery trend due to the inflow of overseas