commitments are : ( 1 ) the plan of action of the g - 7 finance ministers and central bank governors of 10 october, ( 2 ) the ecofin council conclusions of 7 october and ( 3 ) the declaration on a concerted european action plan of the euro area countries on 12 october. these documents list common principles in key areas ( ensuring appropriate liquidity, facilitating the funding of banks through various means, providing additional capital resources to financial institutions, recapitalisation of distressed banks, ensuring appropriate implementation of accounting rules, and enhancing cooperation among european countries ), while leaving national governments free to design the operational aspects of such interventions according to the specific characteristics of their domestic financial industries. in particular, these public commitments establish some core principles on how to address liquidity, funding and solvency problems that should contribute to define a common and more effective approach to overcoming the present turmoil. this common approach has started materialising through the announcements by various euro area governments of co - ordinated action plans that comply with the general principles agreed in euro area and international fora. the importance of cooperation mechanisms and information sharing was also underlined by the european council on 15 and 16 october with the creation of a “ financial stability cell ” aiming to improve crisis management in the eu and the decision to establish regular meetings of national regulators. the importance of broad international cooperation to address the challenges faced by the world economy has been renovated in the statement released after the g - 20 summit on financial markets and the world economy of 16 november. the statement indicates principles for the reform of the international financial systems and the improvement of the global financial architecture as well as policy responses to the global slowdown in economic activity. strengthening market transparency, improving disclosure and accountability are indicated among the core principles for reform of financial markets, with the statement also including a specific action plan listing both immediate and medium - term actions in these areas. in general, the principles for reform indicated by the g - 20 are in many respects consistent with those previously stated in the public commitments of other international fora. nevertheless, as has been stressed by commentators, their restatement by the g - 20, a group of countries including both the major developed economies and the largest emerging economies, is a confirmation of both the global nature of the financial crisis and the equally global determination to overcome it. indeed, all of the public commitments so far together with the plans already adopted by many countries clearly show the strong determination of the international community to preserve the stability of our financial and

european central bank : press conference – introductory statement introductory statement by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 31 august 2006. * * * ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to our press conference and report on the outcome of today ’ s meeting of the ecb ’ s governing council. the meeting was also attended by commissioner almunia. on the basis of our regular economic and monetary analyses, at today ’ s meeting we decided to leave the key ecb interest rates unchanged. the information that has become available since our last meeting has further underpinned the reasoning behind our decision to increase interest rates earlier this month. it has also confirmed that strong vigilance remains of the essence so as to ensure that upside risks to price stability are contained. with key ecb interest rates at still low levels in both nominal and real terms, money and credit growth dynamic, and liquidity ample by all plausible measures, our monetary policy continues to be accommodative. if our assumptions and baseline scenario continue to be confirmed, a progressive withdrawal of monetary accommodation will remain warranted. indeed, acting in a timely manner to contain risks to price stability remains essential to ensure that inflation expectations in the euro area are kept solidly anchored at levels consistent with price stability. such anchoring of inflation expectations is a prerequisite for monetary policy to make an ongoing contribution towards supporting sustainable economic growth and job creation in the euro area. turning first to the economic analysis, all the main indicators in the euro area that have recently become available for the first half of the year show a significant improvement in underlying economic activity and indicate that economic growth was stronger than previously projected by official and private forecasters. according to eurostat ’ s flash estimate, on a quarter - on - quarter basis, real gdp grew by 0. 9 % in the euro area in the second quarter of 2006, significantly above the 0. 6 % growth rate recorded in the previous quarter. in interpreting recent gdp data, due account needs to be taken of the degree of volatility of quarterly growth rates, but they generally confirm our view that economic growth is broadening and becoming more sustained. the information on activity in the third quarter – coming from various confidence surveys and indicator - based estimates – continues to be favourable and supports the assessment of real gdp growing at rates around potential. looking forward, the conditions remain in place for the euro area economy to continue growing at around the potential rate. global