economy ’ s growth potential. all these policies, and others which, for brevity ’ s sake, i have not mentioned today, are essential to generate solvent credit demand and to ensure that a solid banking system can respond to such demand. having tried to raise your spirits, i must tell you that, despite the huge effort made so far, we are unlikely to see a prompt recovery in the spanish economy. emerging from crises caused by over - borrowing and competitiveness losses in a monetary union is a very slow process, bis central bankers ’ speeches and for that very reason we cannot afford to be complacent. the pace of the changes and reforms adopted by this country in recent years has to continue steadily. what remains to be done in relation to the current - account balance and bank restructuring ( to continue with the examples chosen )? to improve the current - account balance spain must continue to improve its competitiveness, in order to generate current - account surpluses for a number of years and so reduce its negative net international investment position. moreover, this is urgent while the worst consequence of the euro crisis, i. e. financial market fragmentation, persists. as regards bank restructuring, much has been done, but there still remains much to do, not only to continue to repair the effects on the banking system of an economic crisis that regrettably can still not be deemed to be over, but also to give us a framework for action to enable us to combat future crises. i am not going to talk today about what banks must do, which is a lot. i will merely give some examples of the tasks outstanding for the authorities. with regard to cleaning up balance sheets and levels of capital, the latest reform has been a very important step, but nothing in life is final. if the spanish economy eventually recovers, it will have been more than enough, but if the economy deteriorates by more than expected, then capital will have to continue to be increased and improved if banks are to remain solid. also, new instruments to increase credit to smes will have to continue to be tested. some of these were discussed at a workshop held by the banco de espana in february in collaboration with the spanish national securities market commission ( cnmv ). at some point political decisions will need to be taken in this area. another area of work is to continue to reduce the size of savings bank governing bodies in order to avoid any duplication when they have transferred their financial business to banks

are based on the financial statements statistics of corporations by industry, quarterly. excluding " finance and insurance. " sources : bank of japan ; ministry of internal affairs and communications ; ministry of finance. chart 7 consumer prices y / y % chg. introduction of qqe ( april 2013 ) - 1 cpi ( all items less fresh food ) cpi ( all items less fresh food and energy ) - 2 cy10 note : figures are adjusted for changes in the consumption tax rate. source : ministry of internal affairs and communications. chart 8 inflation expectations 2. 5 y / y, ann. avg., % economists ( 6 to 10 years ahead ) firms ( 5 years ahead ) 2. 0 households ( over the next 5 years ) 1. 5 1. 0 0. 5 0. 0 cy 05 notes : 1. figures for firms are those for " outlook for general prices " in the tankan survey ( all industries and enterprises, average ). 2. figures for households are from the opinion survey on the general public's views and behavior, estimated using the modified carlson - parkin method. sources : bank of japan ; consensus economics inc., " consensus forecasts. "