Information about the state of the Norwegian economy is available earlier than information provided by official statistics, and it is useful to have closer contact with the labour market and business and industry throughout the country. According to the most recent reports, the economic situation in Central Norway is favourable. The companies that are participating report stable employment and solid growth in all industries. The activity level is high in both manufacturing and construction, but growth is expected to level off. The supply of skilled labour is a constraint on the growth potential. The investment rate is stable and moderate. Enterprises in the region envisage a slight rise in prices in the period ahead. Inflation decelerated markedly from summer 2003 and continued to fall in the beginning of 2004. Consumer price inflation has subsequently picked up, albeit at a gentle pace. In August, the year-on-year rise in consumer prices adjusted for tax changes and excluding energy products (CPIATE) was 1.3 per cent. Adjusted for the interest rate’s direct effect on house rents, the year-on-year rise in the CPI-ATE may be estimated at 1.5 per cent in August. The CPI rose by 1.9 per cent in the same period. 1  Stambøl, L.S. (2005): Arbeidsmarkedsmobilitet i like og ulike regionale arbeidsmarkeder (Labour market mobility in similar and different labour markets), Økonomiske Analyser 4/2005, Statistics Norway. 2/7  Prices for domestically produced goods and services rose by 2.1 per cent in the twelve months to August this year.
Much progress has been made in making the U.S. financial system safer and less prone to 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  panics. Still, there is more to do before we can say that we have ended “too big to fail.” This is work that we absolutely must complete. In particular, U.S. bank holding companies must do more to make their organizations resolvable under either Title I bankruptcy or Title II resolution. This requires having clean parent holding company structures, less corporate complexity, and essential service and support operations that are able to continue to operate even when the parent company becomes non-viable. Also, while there has been significant progress in terms of developing a workable resolution regime—the Single Point of Entry regime established under Title II of the Dodd-Frank Act—we still have to ensure that this regime can be safely utilized on a cross-border basis. This requires fully implementing the TLAC framework, and defining more explicitly the expectations and responsibilities of the different supervisory and regulatory oversight bodies that would have to work together internationally. In particular, this includes how liquidity would be provided to an insolvent firm during the early stages of resolution, so that the firm’s operations could be wound down in an orderly way without destabilizing the global financial system. Finally, I would like to address the issue of bank culture and conduct. Although there has been considerable effort here, there is still much more to do. Banks must restore their trustworthiness.