2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Low for long The last feature of this new economic landscape I wanted to address is low for long. With weak recoveries in the United States and Europe and a tentative hand-off from public stimulus to private demand, policy interest rates can be reasonably expected to remain below normal for some time to come.
By the second half of this year, growth should be similar in both economies as they converge on their respective potential level of activity. Meanwhile, at the global level, escalating trade conflicts and geopolitical tensions have been taking even more of a toll on trade and business investment than we expected.