That episode had once again given rise to another phase of deep pessimism concerning not only the capacity of the world economy to generate positive growth, but also the ability of central banks to steer their economies by applying unconventional monetary policy tools. Inflation was heading towards new lows, dragged down by a renewed sharp fall in commodity prices.
I hope that most of our participants in this Conference find themselves, together with the Reserve Bank, already well advanced into these secondary stages of preparation for the switch-over date. Tomorrow’s meetings will proceed into a discussion of the final phases of risk assessment and contingency planning.