know and for pointing to gaps and inconsistencies in the primary data. much of this is work in progress. with these caveats in mind let me nevertheless give you just a few examples where the euro area accounts have already come into play at the ecb during the crisis complementing and enriching our monetary and economic analysis. 4 first and foremost, the euro area ’ s financial structure was a key element in shaping the ecb ’ s choice of non - standard measures. our pre - dominantly bank - based system of financial intermediation in the euro area made it natural to concentrate efforts on easing the strains in the banking sector via the provision of liquidity and adapting our collateral requirements in our refinancing operations and to target an instrument, as is the case for covered bonds, that plays a significant role in securing longer - term funding for the banking sector. information on financial structure was based, inter alia, on the euro area accounts, such as the observation that banks accounted for around 70 % of financing provided to non - financial corporations in the euro area over the period 2004 - 2008, while the figure was only around 20 % in the case of the united states ( see ecb monthly bulletin, april 2009 ). second, information on financial investment of the money holding sectors complements the analysis of portfolio behaviour in the context of our monetary analysis. of particular interest has been to look into possible portfolio shifts from risky assets into money holdings by households, as had been the case in the wake of the bursting of the equity bubble and period of heightened uncertainty after 9 / 11. third, on the part of non - financial corporations the monetary data showed a decline in deposits, as companies drew down their liquidity buffers initially in the wake of the collapse of lehman, while more recently deposit growth has picked up again. on the basis of the data for an overview of flow - of - funds analysis at the ecb prior to the introduction of the integrated accounts and prior to the financial crisis see be duc and le breton, 2009 ; for an introduction to the eaa see ecb monthly bulletin, 2007, and since may 2009 a regular box on eaa releases at quarterly frequency in the ecb monthly bulletin. available from the eaa until q1 2009 the broad picture of a drawing down of liquid assets can be confirmed, when including debt securities and mutual fund shares in the picture. at the same time on the financing side, the broader perspective of the eaa

european central bank : press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, and mr lucas papademos, vice president of the european central bank, brussels, 7 october 2004. * * * ladies and gentlemen, the vice - president and i are very pleased to welcome you to the press conference here in brussels. today ’ s meeting is the tenth time that the governing council has met outside frankfurt, and i would like to thank governor quaden for his invitation. let me also express our gratitude to the staff of the nationale bank van belgie / banque nationale de belgique for their kind hospitality and perfect organisation of today ’ s meeting. let me now report on the outcome of today ’ s meeting. as regards economic growth, while some uncertainty has recently arisen concerning the expected strengthening of activity, the economic recovery in the euro area is ongoing. looking at price developments, high oil prices have had a visible direct impact on inflation rates this year. however, the risk of second - round effects still seems to be contained, and the overall outlook remains consistent with price stability over the medium term. accordingly, we have left the key ecb interest rates unchanged. this means that the level of interest rates continues to be very low by historical standards, in both nominal and real terms. strong vigilance is warranted with regard to all developments which could imply risks to price stability over the medium term. i shall now explain our assessment in more detail, turning first to the economic analysis. the information available to date indicates that the economic recovery in the euro area is continuing. in particular, survey indicators up to september point to ongoing growth in industrial production and the services sector. moreover, the gradual recovery in consumer confidence is proceeding, and there are some tentative signs of an improvement in the prospects for employment, although available indicators for household spending do not yet point to an immediate strengthening of consumption growth. all in all, the growth momentum seen in the euro area in the first half of 2004 should be broadly maintained in the coming quarters, in line with available forecasts from international organisations. on the external side, euro area exports should continue to benefit from favourable global demand conditions, not least from trade with the new eu member states, where import demand has been strengthening. on the domestic side, investment should benefit from the positive global environment and the very favourable financing conditions in the euro area. as companies restructure, improvements in corporate efficiency and higher