Some of this was due to special factors, such as an early winter that left some crops to rot in the fields, the Canadian National Railway strike, the shutdown of the General Motors plant in Oshawa and so on. Still, economic growth in the fourth quarter was lower than 1 percent when you take out the effect of the special factors.
*  *  *  Introduction Let me first thank the organizers, the IMF, the ECB and the Fed for organizing this timely seminar. The crisis and continuing adjustment process is clearly pushing for a rethink of multiple aspects of central bank policy. The seminar is divided into three sessions and there are separate sessions on macro-prudential policy and financial stability.