In the pre-crisis euphoria of financial alchemy, we forgot that the goal of all development effort is the growth of the real economy, and that the financial sector is useful only to the extent it helps deliver stronger and more secure long term growth.
Lessons of the crisis The crisis has also taught us to re-examine our understanding of the characteristics of financial markets and financial institutions. It will be instructive to briefly review what we learnt in this regard over the last five years. The first thing we learnt is that price stability and macroeconomic stability do not guarantee financial stability.