The difficulty in disentangling demand and supply factors makes the job of the monetary policymaker especially hard since it complicates the assessment of the amount of slack, or underutilized productive capacity, in the economy.
I am looking forward to a fruitful exchange of views and ideas with academics, policymakers and financial experts and, of course, with the audience. Ladies and gentlemen, it is now a great pleasure for me to welcome, our first keynote speaker, Claudio Borio, Head of the Monetary and Economic Department at the Bank for International Settlements.