Sabine Lautenschläger: 20 years of ESCB statistics - past achievements and future challenges Speech by Ms Sabine Lautenschläger, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank, at the Ninth ECB Statistics Conference "20 years of ESCB statistics: What's next", Frankfurt am Main, 10 July 2018. * * * Ladies and gentlemen, I believe the words of the late US politician Daniel Moynihan are a good starting point tonight. He famously said, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts”. I would add that the best opinions are certainly rooted in facts. And, since we seem to have entered the age of “alternative facts”, I have been reflecting on what real facts are, and how to defend them. And it’s not just the age of “alternative facts”; it’s also the age of “fake news”. Still, neither of these concepts is entirely new. For as long as there has been public discourse, people have been tempted to propagate their own take on reality. And not all of them have been able to resist this temptation. But still, something has changed. Today, Twitter and other tools allow almost anyone to communicate with the general public. And fake news is most successful in creating alternative facts when people stop trusting traditional sources of information. This is what’s happening right now, all around us. Traditional media have come under attack.
16 In conclusion, let me briefly summarise my main message today. The rapid increase in productivity growth is an important explanation for the earlier low inflation. Over the past year there has been a decline in productivity growth. This is assessed to be temporary. A recovery is foreseen in the coming years, but at a slightly slower rate of increase than before. References Bloom, N., Sadun, R. and van Reenen, J. (2007), ”Americans Do I.T. Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle”, CEP Discussion Paper, no 788. Brynjolfsson, E. and Hitt, L. (2003), "Computing Productivity: Firm-Level Evidence", MIT Sloan Working Paper, no 4210-01. Conway, P., de Rosa, D., Nicoletti, G. and Steiner, F. (2006), ”Regulation, Competition and Productivity Convergence”, OECD Working paper, no 509. Criscuolo, C. (2005), “The Contribution of Foreign Affiliates to Productivity Growth: Evidence from OECD Countries”, Yearbook on Productivity 2005, Statistics Sweden. 14  Lundgren, Edquist and Wallgren (2007). 15  David (1990). 16  National Institute of Economic Research (2005, 2007). 6  BIS Review 12/2008  Corrado, C., Hulten, C. and Sichel, D. (2005), ”Measuring Capital and Technology: An Expanded Framework”, i Corrado, C., Haltiwanger, J. and Sichel, D. (red. ), Measuring Capital in the New Economy, Studies in Income and Wealth, vol. 65., Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Corrado, C., Hulten, C. and Sichel, D. (2006), ”Intangible Capital and Economic Growth”; National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper, 11948, Cambridge, MA. Crépon, B., Duguet, E. and Mairesse, J.