support the initiatives aimed at re - launching the single market to address the prevailing structural challenges faced by the eu economy. the single market is bis central bankers ’ speeches at the core of the union ’ s growth agenda. a widening and deepening of the single market should be viewed as an opportunity to raise the “ speed limit ” of the economy, which is highly warranted in the aftermath of the impact the financial crisis had on the european economy. moreover, completion of the single market is an essential ingredient of the required quantum leap towards a deeper economic union that is commensurate with the degree of economic integration and interdependency already achieved through monetary union. emu has led to a strengthening of trade integration and competition within the single market by enhancing market access, reducing the costs of cross - border activities and increasing price transparency. at the same time, a well - functioning single market is pivotal for the smooth functioning of emu. it allows for swift and market - based adjustment in case of shocks and facilitates the correction of economic imbalances. a well functioning single market also requires proper design and implementation of financial sector policies. in this respect, the establishment of a new eu supervisory architecture to introduce genuine macro - prudential supervision and to strengthen the micro - prudential oversight at the eu level was a prerequisite for enhanced financial stability arrangements. the establishment of the european systemic risk board and the european supervisory authorities is an important milestone in providing the appropriate incentives to avoid excessive risk taking in the financial sector and to promote a level playing field in support of beneficial financial integration within the monetary union. establishment of an eu framework for crisis management is an important complementary element of the new supervisory framework that still needs to be put in place. conclusion this is a large agenda already. what more would be needed for emu in the longer term? i have sketched out in my speech in aachen earlier this month some elements that in my view would warrant consideration in the design of a longer - term vision for europe. developing these elements in more detail would, however, be the topic of another speech. ladies and gentlemen, i thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

number of redundancy notices is dropping and the number of new job vacancies is increasing. relatively strong growth in domestic demand in the period ahead, in combination with the fact that it should become increasingly difficult for companies to boost output without also adding to their workforces, means that we foresee a rise in the demand for labour in the coming years. the government ’ s recently announced labour market policy programmes for next year can be expected to entail that total employment will increase considerably more than regular employment. but there should also be a rise in the number of regular jobs, among other things in construction, the public sector and the private services sector. it is, as always, difficult to assess how total capacity pressures in the economy will develop in coming years, and thereby what inflation impulses we may expect from wage formation and companies'price - setting behaviour. cost pressures have recently been low, which is partly due to the relatively high productivity growth. however, the reasons behind this are not entirely clear, which makes the assessment of future productivity growth more difficult. it does appear likely that the high level of productivity growth has to some extent been cyclical and a result of the composition of growth. it is reasonable to believe that productivity will increase at a slower rate in future as growth is expected to be linked to a greater extent to strong domestic demand and increased production in the private services sector. all in all, declining productivity growth and higher wage increases as the labour market improves ought to lead to a gradual rise in companies'production costs. however, the cost increases look to be moderate, and we expect that cost pressures will remain relatively low over the coming years. it should be emphasised that it is difficult to determine exactly how far productivity growth will slow down and thereby how much companies ’ costs may increase in future. it is likely that the rate of increase in productivity has risen as a result of the large - scale investment in information technology made by companies at the end of the 1990s and due to the effects of globalisation on competition and output. however, it is fully possible that we will have reason to revise up our forecast for productivity growth even more in coming years. it is just as conceivable that productivity growth will prove to be weaker than estimated. gradually rising inflation inflation has remained low since the end of 2003. both increases in prices of consumer goods that are mainly imported – imported inflation – and increases in prices of domestically - produced goods – domestic inflation – have remained low for