three months, we would see a fall of six percentage points. these are fairly reliable calculations. what do you think of the government ’ s “ i order, you foot the bill ” approach? meaning that employers cannot lay anyone off but have to keep paying ; maintain their expenditure while receiving no income. could this result in the destruction of spain ’ s, and possibly other countries ’, business infrastructure? 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches i mustn ’ t get into analysing specific policies. the spanish government has taken a decision to introduce stricter lockdown measures in the hope that this will in fact help to shorten the pandemic ’ s life cycle and break the chain of infection. ultimately, although this will come at a certain cost, hopefully it will be outweighed by the benefits. this public health crisis will lead to a very severe recession. the assumption is that businesses will stop billing. and what we must do is try to keep as many of our businesses as possible afloat so that, after a certain period, economic activity can bounce back again. when companies stop billing, measures should be taken to try and keep their expenditure to a minimum. if their expenditure is fixed at a certain level, the only way out is for businesses to go bust. and that is what we must avoid. the spanish government – i don ’ t know about other european governments – is providing guarantees for loans to continue paying, but it ’ s not helping businesses with a moratorium on labour costs or on certain taxes. the issue of guarantees is a crucial one. the ecb has provided lots of liquidity to the banks. the banks have to pass this liquidity on to customers, namely smes and the self - employed. so guarantees are important. we also need to allow tax liabilities, social security payments and the like to be deferred. what ’ s important is that businesses that were entirely profitable before the start of the pandemic survive it and become profitable again once it ’ s over. that goes for spain and for all the countries in the euro area. are the €120 billion of debt purchases kind of like the coronabonds that people are calling for? or is this something different? no, this is completely different. it ’ s direct intervention by the ecb. i ’ m in favour of coronabonds ; i think they show solidarity. what would coronabonds involve? coronabonds would be mutualised debt issuance

campaign ". this campaign focuses on four main themes : the visual appearance of the banknotes, their security features, their denominations and the common changeover modalities. it is designed to complement the other information campaigns on the euro, particularly those run by the national authorities in each euro area country. naturally, and as i mentioned earlier, we are also relying on the efforts of the banking community in this regard. at the end of the day, no television advertisement or billboard can replace the direct and immediate advice which competent bank employees can give to their customers. ladies and gentlemen, roughly a year from now, we shall finally be using the new euro banknotes and coins and our national currencies will no longer be in circulation. however, even then, the euro area will still not completely function as a truly unified currency zone. as i mentioned earlier, euro area financial markets are not yet fully integrated. i would also like to draw your attention to another area, which directly concerns the banking community, and where the potential benefits of the euro have yet to be fully exploited. i am referring to the price differential that continues to exist between cross - border retail payments within the euro area and those within individual member states. like the cash changeover, this is another area where the banking community has a crucial role to play in securing the full benefits of the common currency. i appreciate that this also represents a substantial task. however, once european businesses and citizens are using the euro for their everyday transactions, the provision of low - cost, efficient cross - border retail payment services will undoubtedly become a clear policy priority. finally, returning to the title of my speech " where are we 11 months before e - day? ", i would say that so far we are well on track. even before the introduction of euro banknotes and coins, the euro has already delivered much of what was expected. we regard these achievements with some satisfaction. nonetheless, this does not mean that we are complacent. the enormous challenge of the cash changeover still has to be met and, despite all past and ongoing work, a lot remains to be done. even after the changeover, the ecb does not anticipate settling down to " business as usual " anytime soon. our objective is to make the euro a lasting success. i am confident that - by also building on our good working relations with the banking community - we shall continue to succeed in this endeavour. thank you ladies and gentlemen.