detail involved in the t2s user requirements. if i were to issue an employer ’ s reference for members of the advisory group – which fortunately i do not have to do because i expect you to continue to support our work! – i would write that the ag has fulfilled its mandate, which is the delivery of the user requirements, to our complete satisfaction. the same holds true for the six technical groups which were, and here i quote from their mandate, “ responsible for preparing proposals on specific aspects of the user requirements ”. thinking about the 800 pages of the urd, this is a bit of an understatement! among the respondents to the public consultation, there were many that congratulated the eurosystem on the quality of the user requirements. obviously the compliment should mainly go to the ag and it shows that the satisfaction with the urd is not just our own impression but that it is widespread in the market. my special thanks go to the ec which shares with us the same objective – a better integrated, more efficient and safe infrastructure. many of you have attended the post - trading conference in april 2008. there the image of “ plumbing ” was heavily used. to be honest, i like the other part in the title of peter norman ’ s book much better, which is about “ visions ”. what we need are indeed people that are “ plumbers and visionaries ” at the same time, and i think that without this ability to have a clear vision of the future t2s world, which i feel is strongly represented in the ag, the user requirements would not have been possible. therefore i am very confident that as we undertake the specification phase, the ag will live up to our expectations, which is mainly to be a guardian of the urd, to steer the work on t2s - related harmonisation and to advise us on a host of other important issues, such as pricing. before that, there are big challenges ahead of us. as you all know this is a key period, with the fsc, the efc and the ecofin discussing t2s and then the csds and the governing council “ taking their decisions ”. here i want to express my special thanks to the csds, which have shown a constructive attitude despite the fact that they are challenged by this project and that on some topics some tension might remain. time will help to improve our common understanding, and to achieve mutual recognition of how best to deliver efficient, safe

this picture of a favourable outlook for price stability that resulted from our economic analysis was not challenged when cross - checked with the monetary analysis. much of the strength of monetary growth in early 2003 was due to the high level of economic and financial market uncertainty prevailing at that time, which prompted portfolio shifts into safer, short - term liquid assets included in m3. in the governing council ’ s assessment, the accumulation of excess liquidity was less of a concern for price stability as long as the economic recovery in the euro area remained gradual. in view of the moderation of inflationary pressures in the first half of 2003, the key ecb interest rates were reduced by 25 basis points in march 2003 and by 50 basis points in june to reach the historically low level of 2. 0 %. since then rates have remained unchanged. the low level of interest rates across the maturity spectrum provides ongoing support to the economic recovery in the euro area. let me now turn to more recent developments. the evidence available continues to indicate that the moderate recovery of euro area real gdp growth that started in the second half of 2003 has continued in 2004. although recently released economic indicators have been mixed, we remain confident in our expectation of a gradual recovery, a continued, though modest, real gdp growth in the euro area. conditions remain in place for the recovery to continue in 2004 and to gather strength over time. the strength of global demand provides a positive external environment in which euro area exports are expected to grow significantly both this year and next. on the domestic front, favourable financing conditions and an improvement in corporate earnings should continue to support investment in the euro area. euro area firms also look set to return to issuing equity, although only in modest quantities, favoured by the decline in the cost of equity. issuance of debt securities by non - financial corporations was robust throughout 2003, but slowed somewhat at the start of 2004. growth in real disposable income should sustain private consumption at a time when there are no financial constraints on households that could pose an obstacle to higher spending. over time, private consumption should also be fostered by an improvement in the labour market situation. looking at price developments, annual hicp inflation has been below 2 % since december last year. over the coming months, annual inflation rates will edge up, mainly on account of energy price developments and increases in indirect taxes. however, looking beyond these short - term fluctuations, the outlook for price stability continues to be favourable. in a context of gradual economic recovery,