Against that background, the view was that, while the US economy might be in for a bumpy ride over the next few months, associated for example with inventory adjustment in the motor industry, the likely outcome for this year as a whole is that the US economy will continue to grow by perhaps 2-3%, and that the overall world economy – helped by steady growth in the Eurozone – would again this year grow probably somewhat above its longer-term average rate. That, certainly, is a slowdown in the recent rate of growth – and a downward revision of earlier expectations of growth for the current year; but it is not a downturn in the sense of contracting activity. On this view, the slowdown in prospect would have relatively benign effects in terms of the longer term sustainability of the global economic expansion; and developments so far have already had positive effects both in terms of their impact on the world oil price, and in terms of their impact on the pattern of exchange rates, notably by reducing the exaggerated weakness of the euro. On that basis the global economic environment should provide a reasonable background for our own economy. We – and our partners in the European Union – would be relatively little affected by the US economic slowdown. The world economy as a whole would certainly be helped by the somewhat softer oil price – though I appreciate there may be mixed views on that up here in Scotland.
Working from home should be simple and everything should function properly even when a senior official is at home looking after children. Staffing therefore has to be arranged with this in mind. We are also having a drive for more women in managerial posts. Last year we started a mentor programme for female administrators with a view to broadening the base for the recruitment of new managers. ·  Besides altering the ways in which we communicate monetary policy in order to reach a wider public, during these years we have run an educational programme for upper secondary teachers and developed an Internet game called Stargold. At present we are working on an idea for a competition in civics between classes in Sweden's upper secondary schools. 2  BIS Review 51/2001  Evaluating all this is not an easy matter, particularly when one is fully engaged in it. I believe, however, that our efforts to make the Riksbank more transparent have worked well. To use the terminology of the BIS report, we have certainly become more "outward-looking". It has been more difficult to break what the same terminology refers to as "upward-looking". It is not so easy to build up an efficient cooperation and sense of responsibility, unencumbered by prestige, throughout our organisation. It is gratifying that among students in our subject, we are the most popular workplace in the public sector. In the league of all workplaces in Sweden, we rose seven pinholes last year to fourteenth place.