Don’t expect easy answers or simple rules. Projecting growth, deficits, and interest rates is just the beginning When does the level of debt become unsafe? To answer this question, we need a definition of “unsafe.” I propose the following: Debt becomes unsafe when there is a non-negligible risk that, under existing and likely future policies, the ratio of debt to GDP will steadily increase, leading to default at some point. The natural way to proceed is then straightforward. The dynamics of the debt...

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Good afternoon. We have just concluded our EU-China summit. Today's summit is not business as usual, because this is a war-time summit. We are living through the gravest security crisis in Europe since World War Two. Putin's war in Ukraine continues to kill women and children and destroy entire cities, and this is a blatant violation of international law. The European Union's top priority is to stop the war as soon as possible and to protect the Ukrainian people. In...

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The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend toward digitalisation of retail financial services. This report examines whether the COVID-19 pandemic changed the ways in which individuals and firms engage with innovative financial service providers and traditional financial incumbents. Its main finding is that the pandemic has accelerated the trend toward digitalisation of retail financial services. Comprehensive data on market shares of FinTechs, BigTechs and incumbent financial institutions in retail digital services are scarce. However, available proxies and insights from market participants...

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Introductory statement by Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament | Thank you for inviting me to update you on the digital euro project and the progress made since we last met in November. We have previously discussed the broad policy objectives associated with a digital euro. Today, I would first like to highlight some important features which, by making a digital euro attractive to citizens...

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