juncture, it seems that despite the monetary policy space which exists in part of the region, further policy cuts should be carefully calibrated and considered in the context of country specific assessment of future financial and inflation risks. references : 1. aleksandra riedi “ household debt in cesee economies : a joint look at macro - and micro - level data ”, focus on european economic integration, 2019, issue q1 / 19. 2. bank of spain. 2019. “ recent developments in euro area labor costs and mark - ups ” box 4 of the economic bulletin 2 / 2019. 3. european commission country report bulgaria 2019 including an in - depth review on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances. 4. european commission country report croatia 2019 including an in - depth review on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances. 5. financial stability reports of cesee and baltics countries. 6. imf global financial stability report, several editions. 7. international monetary fund ( imf ). 2019. “ wage growth and inflation in europe : a puzzle? ” chapter 2 of the regional economic outlook - europe, washington, dc, november. 8. private sector indebtedness and deleveraging in euro area countries, ecb economic bulletin issue 4 / 2017 - boxes. 9. recent developments in the indebtedness of the private non - financial sector in selected euro area countries, deutsche bundesbank, monthly report, january 2017.

m told that more in the domain of fiscal position. we haven ’ t spoken too much about fiscal policies. but i have to say that in the domain of structural reforms, what we do is to tirelessly explain. a large number of governments, if not all, are absolutely convinced that it will be the right direction, but are meeting resistance in their own public opinion or society. so what we are trying to do is to help convincing public opinion. i have observed, on the other hand, that in the domain of fiscal policies, there is a slight difference of culture, if i may very cautiously suggest, between the uk and continental europe. it ’ s always been state of the art in continental europe that the central bank makes an assessment on the fiscal policies and calls for fiscal soundness. it was the case, even when the national central banks were not independent. everybody was expecting the central bank to express publicly such opinions – whether it was in germany, in italy, in the netherlands, in belgium, in france etc. perhaps in the uk it would be considered not exactly part of the division of labour but i ’ ll let you judge. what is true is that as far as we are concerned, in the eurosystem there is no new concept, we always have called for fiscal soundness. ft : it didn ’ t seem to have much influence over successive french governments, though. they haven ’ t balanced the budget for how many years? 25? jct : i am speaking of continental europe as a whole. in each country that depends. you have several episodes. at the moment i am speaking a lot of homework has to be done and is being done. and the commitment that was taken in berlin under the chairmanship of peer steinbruck for euro area countries, to achieve their medium term objective of sound budgetary positions as soon as possible and by 2010 at the latest, were praised by the governing council. ft : listening to you when you talk about being part of this historic endeavour, an extraordinary achievement and that europe will be expand – you sound so much more comfortable about this than some of your compatriots. jct : i don ’ t think that it is disputable, frankly speaking, that in terms of ideas, in terms of reference to political democracy and human rights on the one hand and of market economics on the other hand the handful of countries that have started european union have won. and all the founding fathers of europe, in particular my