In fact, results of a survey conducted at the ECB show that households that assess government policies as adequate have lower uncertainty about their future income. 1/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  The second source is uncertainty about how the economy will change in response to COVID-19. It is becoming increasingly clear that the crisis will restructure our economies in fundamental ways. In the manufacturing sector, we are likely to see a push to make supply chains more resilient, which will likely lead to a greater focus on “proximity”, i.e. on-shoring of production and reinforcing of strategic value chains. In the services sectors, by contrast, the pandemic is likely to shift the economy towards more “distancing” via more digitalisation. We are already seeing this transition accelerate as retail trade gravitates towards e-commerce, services that we previously thought were “non-tradeable” start being traded online, and more remote working becomes possible. As the workplace changes profoundly, it will take time for the new equilibrium in the economy to appear. Some sectors will grow and create more jobs as their reach increases – think of communication or education and training, for example. But other sectors could undergo significant changes if, say, people no longer need to commute into work to the same extent, or to make as many business trips or attend as many conferences where they consume hospitality services. This rebalancing should lead to higher investment in intangible capital, but part of the capital stock related to tangibles could be superseded.
Therefore, in the previous years, we have organized numerous work-shops on many current topics, international conferences, and our employees lecture in several faculties in the country. Also, four years ago, we introduced the Annual Reward for Young Researchers, which has proved to be a very successful example, followed by other institutions, as well. Today’s opening of the Joint Public Information Centre is another contribution to the upgrade of the scientific and research profile of the Central Bank, which has been established and developed very hard all these years, in parallel with the operational portfolio of the basic functions of NBRM: determining and implementation of the monetary policy, the banking sector supervision, the financial stability support, ensuring smooth functioning of the payment system, and above all, realization of the ultimate objective of the NBRM’s monetary policy – the price stability. I believe that with the opening of this Center, we open another channel for knowledge dissemination, which will be additional stimulus for the scientific and research activity. I believe that the Center will also serve for further deepening of the NBRM and World Bank cooperation, inter alia, also in the domain of organization of forums and debates on various current topics, as well as in the providing of foreign expertise, comparing the domestic with the international experience. Dear friends, We are glad that this library will join the libraries the American journalist Carl T. Rowan calls “knowledge food”, saying also that “the knowledge has liberated much more people than any war made in the entire history”.