Today, I will focus on one of the most discussed elements of the monetary policy response, our interventions in the foreign exchange market. Before doing so, I would like to stress a key element of the Swiss financial market structure that has shown particular resilience and has helped to provide appropriate financial conditions throughout the crisis in the Swiss economy: the Swiss franc repo market. The good performance of this market is closely related to another element of the SNB’s policy that has drawn public attention, and even criticism – our collateral policy. 1  During the recession of 1974–1976, real output in Switzerland fell by more than 10%. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  I. An important feature of the Swiss money market: the SNB’s collateral policy  A plausible and popular diagnosis for the recent financial crisis is that it started with a bank run.
Durmuş Yılmaz: Turkey beyond 2008 Speech by Mr Durmus Yılmaz, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, at the Annual Investment Conference "Turkey beyond 2008", organised by the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) and The Turkish-American Business Council (TAIK), New York, 17 March 2008. *  *  *  Dear Guests, As you all may know, the Turkish economy used to experience boom-and-bust cycles throughout the 1990s. The economic crisis in 2001 was the low point of this period, when the economy contracted more than 5 percent. Since then, Turkey has put in place a very intense and ambitious structural reform agenda, coupled with sound monetary and fiscal policies, to establish macroeconomic and financial stability and to improve the business environment. Central Bank independence that was granted by Law in 2001 was one of the milestones of this agenda. The introduction of free-floating exchange rate regime in 2001 and inflationtargeting regime in 2002 were other key steps. The Central Bank of Turkey has also experienced a comprehensive institutional change towards a better communication policy and clearly defined accountability measures. We have experienced a significant disinflation process since 2001. The consumer price index came down from 68.5% in 2001 to 8.4% in 2007. I should call your attention to the fact that the list of countries that lowered inflation in 2007 was quite short, thanks to global inflationary pressures in food and other commodities.