BIS central bankers’ speeches  7  It should already be clear from what I have discussed so far that this is a misleading description. As monetary policy has not leaned against the wind to any great extent, this can hardly have had any particularly devastating effect on the economy. With what is by now a rather worn but at the same time very telling likeness, the Riksbank has not during this period hit the repo-rate brake, but rather eased up on the accelerator somewhat. No deflationist development driven by a weak real economy This picture is confirmed if one examines how, for instance, GDP and employment have developed since the crisis. Figure 5 summarises the percentage change in GDP per capita and the employment rate in relation to the pre-crisis figures in the countries Sweden is normally compared with. As can be seen, Sweden is not right at the top, but nor is it very far from it. There are only a few countries, according to these statistics only New Zealand and Germany, that have had a better development in both GDP and employment, that is, that are above and to the right of Sweden in the figure. Some claim that the development of unemployment has been less favourable. But here we must bear in mind the fact that the labour force in Sweden has increased relatively substantially during the period. This is essentially positive, but in the short run it will also contribute, purely mathematically, to keeping up the unemployment figures.
The IMF concluded its latest Article IV Report noting that financial regulation and supervision here is “among the best globally and…a frontrunner in implementing global regulatory reforms”.25 Trust can be sustained only if all countries follow the example of Singapore to implement standards consistently, fully and in a timely way. To provide confidence that full and consistent implementation is taking place, the FSB will support that with rigorous and transparent peer reviews and implementation monitoring. We are providing clear and simple reporting, through the work chaired by Ravi Menon in our Standing Committee on Standards Implementation. In my letter to G20 Leaders last week, I provided that Committee’s latest findings of our monitoring process, in a simple summary with report card. 24  Chart 14, from Haldane (2014), shows the correlation between national savings and investment. That correlation had reached zero just before the crisis, suggesting that the global financial system was fully integrated. However, this has now reversed sharply. Sapir and Wolff (2013) document the home bias in equity markets even within the euro area. 25  IMF (2014b). BIS central bankers’ speeches  11  From next year, the FSB will further enhance this reporting, through an annual reporting process on implementation. This will seek to highlight both shortcomings and good practice, and will seek to assess whether reform measures are having unintended effects and must therefore be adjusted. The FSB’s work will include focus in particular on the effects in emerging markets.