For policy-making institutions, particularly in emerging economies, the challenge to fulfill key objectives like price stability, sustainable growth and financial stability, is driving them into uncharted operational territory. I take this opportunity to touch upon some of the most pressing issues at stake. *** Dear Guests, Life with the Sars-Cov2 virus continues to be an unprecedented health and social challenge. Fortunately, health institutions today know more about the virus and which policies serve best to contain it. Unfortunately, we are still far from a definite and practical epidemiological solution. Against this background, the economic fallout from the pandemic is still unfolding. The strict lockdown in the second quarter paved the way towards a synchronized global recession; the economic activity in most emerging and advanced economies shrunk rapidly while unemployment jumped sharply. However, the easing of lockdown measures in the third quarter and the quick deployment of both fiscal and monetary policies at national level, have started to pull up the global economy from the brink of collapse. The scale of the two key support measures at national level, fiscal and monetary policy, reached unprecedented levels in many economies, not seen even during the recent global crisis of 2008. The aggregate fiscal support at global level has reached almost 12 trillion USD. Key policy rates have declined to zero and in some cases have pushed through that boundary and into negative territory.
The enforced limited social interaction due to the risk from coronavirus has accelerated the shift towards digital business and digital finance. While financial technology (or FinTech) has been on the rise prior to this pandemic, the lockdown and limited social interaction has promoted further growth of this sector which may change the landscape of financial industry in the future. The pandemic may well trigger permanent shifts to the work-life balance. Remote working can become a permanent option in the future as some global companies may have already predicted. A final issue, is how the pandemic may affect the current climate crisis in the long run. Besides the short-term impact of the lockdown on the climate issue, an optimistic view holds that the lockdown may trigger e new momentum towards a cleaner economy. *** Honorable participants, I am looking forward to an open discussion and your fruitful feedback on these issues. 3/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  I am confident a frank exchange of ideas will enrich our joint understanding on the nature of challenges we are facing as well as on the best policies and instruments we should deploy to tackle them. Let me close by thanking you for being with us today! 4/4  BIS central bankers' speeches