area concluded that credit standards eased considerably for loans to enterprises and housing loans, and loan demand increased across all categories, thereby continuing to support loan growth. as far as the ecb ’ s qe programme is concerned, ecb holdings amount to €1. 96 trillion under the public sector purchase programme ( pspp ), while total purchases under the asset purchase programme ( app ) amount to €2. 39 trillion, and the app is expected by the majority of economists to come to a close by year - end. the pace of app purchases was reduced to €60 billion per month as of april 2017 ( from €80 billion previously ) and to €30 billion per month as of january 2018. 2. emu reform and the risks from the lack of progress 2. 1 emu reform i would now like to discuss the concerns about the emu setup, especially in the aftermath of the euro area debt crisis. the crisis brought to the surface major flaws in the euro area ’ s functioning, which had been building up over time and did not emerge overnight. the eurozone remains a job half - done and, without a doubt, the completion of the emu architecture could further facilitate and motivate member state reforms in view of euro area accession. on the positive side, one has to mention the establishment of a permanent rescue fund, the european stability mechanism, which provides financial assistance to euro area countries experiencing, or threatened by, severe financing problems, which can no longer borrow money on financial markets as a result. a banking union is on track to be completed, ensuring centralised supervision of systemically significant credit institutions subject to a single rulebook applicable across the european union and also ensuring centralised resolution in the event of failure of such a credit institution. a capital markets union is also under way, creating a new financial system that is less dependent on bank financing with the potential to increase risk - sharing via the private sector and address economic shocks. although the emu is now stronger, it is not yet fully shock - proof. table 1 elements to complete an economic and monetary union source : european commission. i will stay a bit longer on the banking union which is of direct interest also to noneuro area eu member states. it is currently still lacking key components that would ensure risk - sharing across the euro area and break the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns. a reflection paper by the european commission on deepening the economic and monetary union proposed concrete steps that could be taken by the time

my view there on romania ’ s prospective euro area accession. in the final section, i will offer some remarks about my own country, greece, which seems to be finally coming out of the woods after three adjustment programmes within the eurozone. * disclaimer : views expressed in this speech are personal views and do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions i am affiliated with. 1. introduction and a few remarks on the state of the euro area economy at a global level, as i was the official representative of the bank of greece to imf / wb spring meetings last month in washington dc, i would like to share with you my takeaways : caution and scepticism are the two catchwords i got from the meetings. for instance, the heightened fears about an escalation of tensions between the us and china, in light of the us decision to impose tariffs on imports on national security grounds and the us stance in the negotiations over the revision of the north american free trade agreement ( nafta ), more specifically, the us demands to limit imports from canada and mexico. markets are sceptical about the upturn since, on top of the threat of a global trade war, there are important risks ( including geopolitical ones, breeding again in the us and i am referring to the us administration ’ s decision to pull out of the iran nuclear deal undermining global stability and threatening to disrupt the global order – the oil price has risen by almost 15 % in the last month ). trade wars may be avoided, but trade tensions have been having an impact on market sentiment, posing risks for the upturn in the global economy. in europe, expectations for near - term euro area reforms are now very low. france has been putting pressure on germany to come to concrete decisions on deepening emu at the june european council, including on the banking union. i will come back to emu reform in more detail shortly. turning now to the state of the economy in the euro area, headline inflation was 1. 3 % in march, while core inflation was just 1 %. euro area gdp is expected to grow at 2. 4 % in 2018 and 2 % in 2019 and to slow down to 1. 6 % in 2020 and this is worrying of course for the dynamics of output growth in the eurozone. nothing lasts for good! the unemployment rate was 8. 5 % in february, the lowest since december 2008. the april 2018 bank lending survey for the euro