of people employed keeps increasing and has increased by more than 11 million since mid - 2013. the more domestically - oriented services and construction sectors also continue to hold up well. yet, global factors weigh on euro area growth. 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches to be sure, there are tentative signs of stabilisation. forward - looking indicators have become in slightly more optimistic, as the purchasing managers ’ index on manufacturing business expectations in 12 months ’ time have increased in the five consecutive months through january to the highest level in 18 month. moreover, while uncertainties surrounding the global economic environment remain elevated, those related to trade tensions between the united states and china are receding. other risks, however, are still lingering or – as for the uncertainty surrounding the impact of the coronavirus – are a renewed source of concern. the overall moderate growth performance is delaying the pass - through from wage increases to prices and inflation developments remain subdued. inflation measured by the ( flash ) harmonised index of consumer prices stood at 1. 4 % in january, in line with our expectations. the euro area economy therefore continues to require support from our monetary policy, which provides a shield from global headwinds. we see that our policy stimulus is being passed on to the financing conditions most relevant for the real economy. according to latest data, lending rates for businesses are almost 10 basis points lower than they were one year ago, and for households for house purchases they are almost 40 basis points lower and close to their historical lows. these favourable financing conditions in turn continue to support business investment and consumer and construction spending in the euro area, partially offsetting the negative impact from sluggish developments in global demand. at the same time, we continue to closely monitor the potential side effects of our measures. low interest rates bring a lot of benefits to the euro area economy. that being said, low funding costs appear to have also encouraged more borrowing by highly leveraged firms and greater risk - taking by non - banks, such as investment funds, insurance companies and pension funds. in addition, property markets in a number of euro area countries have seen persistently rising prices, although the low interest rate environment is only one among many factors influencing the choice to borrow for house purchase. in this environment, authorities should continue to use targeted macroprudential measures to address the associated risks to financial stability. at the same time, fiscal and structural policies also have an important role to play in a low interest rate environment. they can

valued in time ) implied much higher losses than had been generally expected by industry specialists. the central bank had decided to take the announcement of the valuations of the first tranche of nama loan purchases as the occasion to the necessary capital infusions for allied ( aib ), bank of ireland and ebs – the going concern guaranteed banks selling loans into nama. 7 the requirements announced by the bank at the end of march 2010 ( in what was known as pcar2010 ) assumed that all of the nama purchases would involve haircuts as large as thefirst tranche, and also took account of forward - looking loss estimates in a base case and a stress scenario of the non - nama books. for example, a flat 5 % loan - loss estimate – much higher than that assumed by the banks ’ managements themselves – was applied to the residential mortgage portfolios. these banks were also required to reach capital adequacy standards above the existing international regulatory minima – thereby reflecting trends in international regulatory thinking. the banks were given a 9 - month period in which to raise the additional capital needed. bank of ireland proceeded immediately to raise capital from the in order to allow the banks to continue to fund themselves as deposits and bonds matured during the two - year period of the initial guarantee, a further more limited guarantee ( known as elg ) on new deposits and bonds was provided by the government from late 2009. having run out of eligible assets for normal ecb liquidity operations, anglo requested ela in february 2009 shortly after its nationalization. the amount of ela it drew fluctuated up to about €15 billion between then and late september 2010. of course there was the known potential of a large haircut on the purchase of property - related loans by nama, but the prospective losses might not fully affect accounting measures of capital until the losses were incurred. this approach sufficiently balanced the need to ensure adequate capital for prudential purposes with the need to avoid needless and damaging acceleration of the crystallization of the costs of the government guarantee. it also took account of the existence of the government guarantee as a form of quasi - capital support. a capital adequacy assessment of anglo and inbs was deferred. ptsb too was not included in that special capital adequacy exercise as it was not affected by nama purchases. bis central bankers ’ speeches market ; allied ( aib ) started to dispose of some of its