christian noyer : the euro area sovereign debt crisis speech by mr christian noyer, governor of the bank of france and chairman of the board of directors of the bank for international settlements, at the bank of france / toulouse school of economics conference “ the euro area sovereign debt crisis ”, paris, 19 december 2011. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to give the introductory address to this stimulating conference that the banque de france is very pleased to organize jointly with toulouse school of economics. obviously, finding a more topical subject would be difficult, now that euro area ’ s sovereign debt markets are caught in the vortex of the financial turmoil that has been plaguing the world economy for the last four years. this topic is also the one we have chosen for our next financial stability review, to be released next march, with a significant number of contributions stemming from today ’ s presentations. the current crisis is indeed extremely challenging. many complex factors are currently interacting, making policy decision - making particularly difficult. in such a context, academics have a critical role to play to help us clarify the tradeoffs and available options, so that we are better able to make the right choices in real time. this very fact that intellectual inputs from research are a precious resource in times of stress and multi - faceted uncertainty confirms me in my view that central banks ’ investment in economic research, be it in - house or through partnerships with academia, is a very valuable asset. therefore, i also warmly welcome this conference as being one brilliant illustration of the benefits brought by our three years long partnership with toulouse school of economics ( tse ). note however that, while the organization of high - level academic conferences has been an important achievement within this partnership, it is not the only one. indeed, many avenues of fruitful collaboration have developed. two series of regular joint seminars, one on monetary economics, the other on financial stability, and several workshops have notably contributed to strengthen the links between banque - de - france and tse researchers and stimulate the scientific and policy debates. i would also like to take this opportunity to thank jean tirole for his personal involvement in the exchanges with banque de france. last but not least, let me also advertise the new banque de france – tse senior and junior prizes in monetary economics and finance which purpose is to distinguish outstanding contributions by academics. the first prizes will be awarded for the first time on 16 march 2012. in the

european central bank : press conference - introductory statement introductory statement by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, helsinki, 6 may 2004. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to welcome you to our press conference here in helsinki, where the governing council of the european central bank met today for the ninth time outside frankfurt. i would like to thank acting governor matti louekoski for his invitation and very kind hospitality, as well as the staff of suomen pankki - finlands bank for a perfectly organised meeting. we deeply regret that mr matti vanhala had to resign from his position and we wish him all the best. let me now report on the outcome of today ’ s meeting. on the basis of our regular economic and monetary analyses, we continue to expect that price stability will be maintained over the medium term. accordingly, we did not change our assessment of the monetary policy stance and left the key ecb interest rates at their current low levels. the low interest rates across the entire maturity spectrum are also supporting the economic recovery in the euro area. as always, we will continue to monitor carefully all developments that could affect our assessment of risks to price stability over the medium term. allow me to elaborate on our decision, turning first to the economic analysis. regarding the current situation and the very short - term outlook, the conjunctural indicators available still provide mixed evidence. all in all, they suggest that the recovery of real economic activity in the euro area has continued into 2004, albeit at a modest pace. most recent information has been more encouraging, with the latest euro area survey data offering more positive signals with regard to the beginning of the second quarter. while the latest positive signals need to be confirmed by future developments, they underpin the expectation of the gradual recovery in the euro area continuing and strengthening over time. the conditions for such a recovery are in place. first, global economic growth continues to be robust and world trade has strengthened. the global economic upturn is broadly based, both geographically and across sectors, and thus provides a favourable external environment for the euro area. in this context, we expect euro area exports to grow significantly this year and next. second, favourable financing conditions, improvements in corporate efficiency and earnings and the strength of global demand should help investment. growth in real disposable income should support private consumption, especially since households appear not to face financial constraints that might impede stronger spending. over time,