*  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, On behalf of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, I am very pleased to welcome all of you to the OeNB’s 42nd Economics Conference here in Vienna.
I am especially honored to welcome Sonja Steßl, State Secretary in the Austrian Ministry of Finance, and this year’s keynote speakers, Axel A. Weber, Chairman of the Board of Directors of UBS, and Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the European Central Bank.