loans to students, which they repay as they enter the labor force and begin to earn. in the past israeli students have strongly objected to any significant rise in tuition. that is understandable. but significantly higher tuition payments are needed to enable the universities to attract the faculty they need and to continue to contribute to advancing israel's technological progress and prowess. in concluding, i must apologize for making so utilitarian an argument for strengthening the universities. for a good university is far more than a source of technological progress ; it is a repository and source of knowledge, of culture, of values, of civilization. that too is why a society – why israel – needs to cherish and support its universities and its system of higher education. thank you.

the answer that would readily suggest itself. 2 current monetary policy but let me start by looking at the current economic developments in the euro area. the euro area has so far enjoyed four and a half years of continuous economic growth. as mario draghi pointed out recently, what started out as a recovery is now a fully - fledged expansion. it is robust and broad - based, with most countries and sectors posting positive growth figures. as a result, the euro area grew even faster than the us economy last year. after years of challenges, the euro area is now driving global growth, not dragging it down. and indicators show 1 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches no sign of growth abating anytime soon. in many respects, the euro area economy might be further along now than the us economy at the time the fed ended its net asset purchases. the euro area output gap of 0. 5 % for 2017, as estimated by the oecd, is considerably smaller than the us output gap of 2. 5 % in october 2014. and at that time, the oecd believed the output gap to be even higher, at 3. 1 %. this suggests that the euro area economy might utilise its resources more fully now than the us economy did when the fed ceased its net asset purchases. inflation, however, has not kept pace with economic expansion. domestic price pressure, measured by core inflation ( excluding energy and unprocessed food ), stands at 1. 2 % in the euro area today. by contrast, when the fed ceased its net asset purchases, us core inflation was 1. 8 %. what is behind the sluggish price developments? multiple factors seem to be at play here. the euro area recovery has certainly been aided by countries strengthening their competitiveness and turning their current account deficits into surpluses. but improving price competitiveness through wage restraint is, naturally enough, also dampening domestic price pressures. in parts of the euro area, migration from eu member states not participating in the euro might have played a role as well. in germany, for example, migration from the non - euro - area member states has eased labour market tensions. this has dampened wage pressures and, in turn, inflation dynamics. but the euro area is by no means unique in having an inflation rate that is lower than indicators of economic slack suggest. it seems to be a rather widespread phenomenon, characteristic of the current situation in the us, the uk, japan and sweden, for