Our ongoing strategy review provides an opportunity to reflect on the adequacy of concepts such as the market neutrality principle and to explore ideas for other benchmarks that could guide the implementation of our asset purchases. A transition from the market neutrality principle to the market efficiency principle would be an important step in acknowledging the presence of climate externalities. However, the consequences of any potential policy initiatives need to be thoroughly evaluated against the limitations stipulated by the Treaties. Our measures must always remain without prejudice to our primary mandate of safeguarding price stability. The joint ECB/CEPR/EBRD Symposium offers a timely opportunity to discuss the immense challenges posed by climate change. We look forward to hearing your views on how all of us – academics and policymakers alike – can contribute to understanding and tackling one of the greatest challenges of our time. Thank you for your attention. 1. I would like to thank Agnese Leonello and Jean-David Sigaux for their contributions to this speech. 2. Additional information on EU climate initiatives and the European Green Deal is available here. 3. See Schnabel, I. (2020a), “Never waste a crisis: COVID-19, climate change and monetary policy”, 17 July. 4. See Lagarde, C. (2021), “Towards a green capital markets union for Europe”, 6 May. See also Panetta, F. (2021), “Sustainable finance: transforming finance to finance the transformation”, 25 January. 5. Banks seem to increasingly factor in climate-related risks, for example by pricing climate-related policy exposures in their loan portfolios and reducing lending to polluting companies and projects.
Thomas Jordan: Prospects for the Swiss economy in 2009 Summary of a speech by Mr Thomas Jordan, Member of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the erfa-Gruppe, Weinfelden, 15 January 2009. The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). *  *  *  Following a long, strong and broad-based growth phase, the world economy moved into a major recession in mid-2008. About a year after the beginning of the unprecedented financial market crisis, there was a radical turnaround in the global economic outlook. The European and Asian economies were not disconnected from the US, as had been hoped. The Swiss economy leans heavily on its export and financial sectors and faces a difficult year. A recession appears unavoidable in 2009. Consequently, the skilful deployment of monetary and fiscal policies as well as optimal conduct on the part of business practitioners in Switzerland are particularly important. Monetary policy can be changed quickly and its impact is relatively rapid through its influence on interest rates and the exchange rate. The SNB has reacted resolutely to the deterioration in the economic situation and has reduced interest rates to almost zero. If necessary, monetary policy can be rendered even more expansionary through a series of alternative instruments. In the case of fiscal policy, the focus is on effective automatic stabilisers – first and foremost, allowing the occurrence of temporary budget deficits, together with unemployment benefits and compensation for short-time working.