soon to fully assess the impact of the newest changes to mortgage lending guidelines. these guidelines, which came into effect at the start of the year, were aimed at tightening standards for uninsured mortgages. it is not yet clear whether the guidelines are driving a significant amount of activity away from federally regulated institutions and toward private lenders and credit unions, who may not follow the federal guidelines. this is an issue that we will monitor. we are looking forward to lending data from the second quarter, as well as the latest information from the canada mortgage and housing corporation about mortgage underwriting practices, which we will receive later this year. in terms of housing market imbalances, we have also seen some lessening in this vulnerability, though it remains elevated. the annual rate of house price growth peaked in april 2017, at just under 20 per cent on a national basis, and is now below 2 per cent. this slowdown is due to the declining affordability of housing in some markets, as well as the combined impact of higher interest rates, macroeconomic policies such as the new mortgage lending guidelines, and housing policy measures taken by various provincial governments. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches of course, that figure is a national average. outside of toronto, national house price growth remains above 5 per cent. a decline in prices for single - family homes in toronto is a major factor pulling down this national average. in contrast, prices for condominiums are still growing rapidly, particularly in the greater toronto and vancouver areas. this is a reverse of the dynamics that we saw until early 2017, when price growth for condos trailed the pace for single - family homes. it is possible that the guidelines are having an impact here by limiting the amount some buyers can borrow and increasing the demand for condos relative to single - family homes. it is also possible that speculative activity is helping to push prices higher. the third main vulnerability we are watching is the possibility of a major successful cyber attack on a financial institution or market infrastructure, such as the payment systems that we all rely on every day. given how interconnected our financial system is, there is concern that a successful attack on one institution could have wide - ranging effects. the bank has been working with major banks and payments canada to make sure our country ’ s key payment systems can recover quickly from a successful cyber attack. overall, when we look at the three vulnerabilities and our risk scenarios, we judge that the overall level of risk is

klaas knot : relaunching growth in europe together speech by mr klaas knot, president of the netherlands bank, at the eurofi financial forum, berlin, 10 september 2020. * * * ladies and gentleman, more than six months after the outbreak of the covid - 19 pandemic, it is clear that the virus has pushed the global economy into deep recession. the european economy has not been spared. what i am particularly concerned about is that the ability to recover from this blow is far from equal across euro area member states. this crisis has thereby reemphasized the challenges to our economic and monetary union. challenges that are posed by a creeping divergence in productivity growth, competitiveness and per capita income between member states. although many of you may share my concern, the urgency is not felt by everyone outside this room. therefore, today i would like to argue why i think growth divergence in the euro area threatens to undermine the benefits of european cooperation. and i will outline how i think we can successfully overcome this challenge. challenges of the single currency indeed, the economic benefits of european cooperation are still convincing. take the european single market. a wide body of research shows it has clear benefits for each and every member state, with small, open economies the dutch one benefiting most. also, there are still strong economic arguments in favor of our common currency. a single market like the european market, where there is intensive trade between countries, benefits from the absence of exchange rates. the success of the single market is therefore built on the bedrock of the euro. but we have seen that a single currency also brings disadvantages. certainly for a group of countries that differ quite a bit from each other economically. until now the euro has not lived up to its promise of bringing sustainable economic convergence. in fact, we have seen the opposite. as devaluations are no longer possible, countries with lagging productivity growth can only restore competitiveness through wage moderation. but even in competitive countries like germany and the netherlands, wage growth is already muted. structurally undercutting german and dutch wage growth is therefore easier said than done. you could say that the euro always gives a little boost to the more productive, more competitive economies in the north. to southern economies where productivity growth is generally lower, the euro is a relative burden. that is why the more productive and the less productive economies have a tendency to diverge. if this imbalance persists for