Abstract
The financial sector has long been seen as a highly useful and productive area of activity. As a result, it has grown extremely dynamically at times. However, the events of recent years have eroded the sector's former prestige. First the US subprime crisis and then the disruption of the euro area, the financial markets came under fire from public criticism. Some people are now wondering whether the financial markets might weigh too heavily on a national economy, to the point of thwarting its growth. In this article, we will focus mainly on Belgium and try to get an idea of its financial sector through several chapters. Thus, it is in the context of a questioned financial sector that we will first see whether the financial sector represents a threat to European countries and more specifically Belgium. Then we will examine the development of Belgium's TARGET balance, which tends to remain negative. In the third chapter, we will see the impact of the debt reduction process on Belgian growth. Finally, we will focus on the threats to financial stability posed by the debt of Belgian households.
