BIS Review 76/2005  5  I note here that the blurring of boundaries between financial sectors in terms of financial institutions’ activities, markets and financial instruments – which represents a major development of financial integration – constitutes an additional challenge for the authorities both for supervision and for financial stability monitoring.
Following a roughly 5% increase in each of the past few years, the IMF now expects global economic growth to slow to close to 4% this year and to 3% in 2009. The economic slowdown is especially marked in the advanced economies. In these countries, the word recession has re-entered the public debate. Third, with global economic activity weakening, inflation worries have abated.