 Contagion in financial markets is a difficult concept that people often confuse with interdependence. So contagion is really something that is interdependence that goes beyond what we can explain with existing fundamentals. So the idea is there is a transmission, interdependence across countries which strengthen certain periods like the financial crisis now. So we see for instance the intensification of a transmission of a shock, let's say from Greece or from other countries, let's say to the Netherlands. So this intensification is what people often refer to as contagion and then the question of course is where does that contagion come from? What's the source? So here it is important to make a distinction between different types of contagion. Some people refer to fundamental contagion which may simply have to do with the fact that fundamentals in different countries are more similar, are related. Other people often refer to what some term called cure contagion. So the idea is here that financial market participants overreact. So it has to do with an overreaction where financial market participants suddenly become a lot more sensitive to existing fundamentals. So this intensification in nutshell is what people often refer to as contagion. It's quite a threat nowadays for financial markets. It is a threat, but in a way it's a positive phenomenon just as well as a negative phenomenon. So people often have in mind that negative phenomenon meaning in case of a crisis as we see it now and also as we saw it past the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 a negative shock, a negative development is more easily transmitted across countries. But you can think of it easily and also in the positive sense. So positive development somewhere in the world is transmitted more easily across countries. So it goes in both directions and of course it means that financial market co-movements are magnified. So global markets become more interdependent in good times as well as bad times. So it is very much symmetric. So there's no way we can avoid contagion in the future, positive or negative. It will always be there. Contagion is part of what we call financial globalization. So we are more and more living in a single global market, in particular in financial markets. That means reaping the benefits through a better allocation of capital, through deeper financial markets, better access to capital which ultimately is good for growth. So it has a lot of benefits for growth. But of course it also has drawbacks. And that means in times of crisis crisis are transmitted more easily. So systemic or crisis become more likely to become systemic globally. So one has to weigh these pros and the cons against one another. Policy can do quite a lot. So the question here one has to go much deeper into the issue what the source of contagion is. And as I referred to this fundamentals contagion versus herding contagion. So for fundamentals contagion there clearly the issue is one has more similar fundamentals. So meaning a country let's say that has sovereign debt difficulties. A crisis in that country is more easily or more readily transmitted to countries similar difficulties and sovereign debt markets. So that's one specific example. So clearly the policy conclusion there is you have to be very much aware of the risks and make sure that your domestic policy environment is in shape. So that you have strong fundamentals, a strong financial system, solid government finances, well functioning financial markets, good institutions. So there's clearly something that domestic policymakers can do. And of course there is an issue of global policy coordination. And this basically means how can we address the root cause of that contagion, right? So on the one hand you can protect your own country, but you can go a second step, go further and say what can we do at a global level. And here the issue of policy coordination is very important. Now we have seen a lot of initiatives over the past few years to deal with that through coordinated policy action of the global level on monetary policy on the institutional side. For instance the IMF taking a much bigger role. The G20 has become a very important forum where policymakers coordinate to deal with this global source of systemic risk and systemic contagion. And this can take different forms, liquidity injections, provide provision of financial market support to governments. But ultimately these are the two general concepts of how policymakers can deal with it.