At the second stage, we will arrange consultations with the professional community, including financial market representatives, companies, independent analysts, and researchers. Now, I would like to focus on challenges to the economy in a broader context. By the moment, the economy has almost recovered to its pre-crisis level. Today, the key question is about the pace of post-pandemic growth and the drivers that would promote a faster than 1.5–2% annual growth rate (this was our pre-pandemic estimate of potential growth). We believe that, by bringing inflation back to the target, our monetary policy will serve our longterm development goals. Indeed, monetary policy does not influence economic potential. However, it creates prerequisites 2/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  for investment that would improve labour productivity and relocate resources to the industries of tomorrow. The chief result of the inflation targeting regime is that we have managed to decrease the socalled inflation premium and, accordingly, the level of long-term interest rates, thus improving the affordability of long-term financing. These are moderate long-term interest rates, rather than our key rate as such, that are vital for businesses’ investment plans. It is now crucial not to miss the momentum of changes — we need to support digitalisation and, simultaneously, raise labour productivity and reduce companies’ costs. The Government has launched large-scale infrastructure projects that should open new opportunities for businesses to implement really efficient projects. This is also essential given the energy transition that is set to take place.
This is not normal, but today there is no other alternative but to continuously expand controlling powers. Since there is little hope for self-regulation, we believe it right to move towards more systemic efforts in order to limit risks for customers. We would like to, so to say, coordinate the fundamental principles with the market community. The first principle is product governance, that is, product life cycle management. We discussed this topic yesterday at the International Financial Congress. We are now drafting a relevant 5/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  consultation paper and will publish it soon to discuss it with the financial community. The idea of such product governance is that, before offering new products or services in the market, a company should identify the target audience and its needs, inherent risks for customers, and test new products before their launch. The second fundamental principle is the assessment of the customer value of a financial product. In our opinion, a high-quality financial product should conform to consumers’ reasonable expectations. I firmly believe that if market participants focus on the customer value of a product, this will promote effective competition in the market. Unfortunately, not all financial products offered in the market today conform to the customer value principle. As an example, let’s look at recent statistics on housing equity holders’ insurance and insurance in general.