Once inflation has been brought under control, and once this control has been confirmed, monetary policy can guide short-term interest rates to a level which contributes to balanced growth. Quite a number of EU countries are in such a situation already, with short-term interest rates at around 3%. In others, where inflation has been brought under control more recently, rates have not yet reached this level but are approaching it gradually. The confirmation that inflation has been brought under control does, unfortunately, take time. Finally, in one major country which has seen rapid growth for several years now and in which unemployment has fallen remarkably, short-term interest rates have been raised - applying the principle of preventive medicine. 3. Now, what can we say about long-term interest rates, which also have an important role to play in stimulating growth - perhaps an even more important one than short-term rates? Monetary policy does have an influence on the level of these rates, but its influence is not exclusive and we cannot even predict the direction of its influence with certainty. At this particular point in time, in the first group of countries to which I referred a moment ago, nominal long-term interest rates are at a historically low level - they are well below 6% - but real long-term interest rates can be regarded, perhaps, as still being too high to put continental Europe on the road to more vigorous growth.
But before I hand you over to the MoneyPACIFIC team for their presentation I truly believe your goals and objectives in your respective designations can be greatly complemented with our agenda of financial literacy and that this latest resource will be of use to the pursuit of youth and women empowerment, assist the micro-entreprenuers, complement student learnings from the existing national education curricula, and overall greatly assist us in all our diverse capacities as financial consumers. Manuia le tātou fa’amoemoe. Thank you. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches