This is not only exemplary, it is an important lesson we can learn from the crisis for use in the future, and it holds true not only for households but for companies and public entities as well. There are many ways to express this message, but allow me to refer to French classical literature and recall for you Jean de la Fontaine’s celebrated fable about the cricket and the ant: “La cigale et la fourmi”. In the fable, the cricket who had not accumulated surpluses during the plenteous summer days preceding the crisis, found herself “fort dépourvue quand la bise fut venue”, that is, she “found when the winter winds blew free, her cupboard bare as bare could be”. The fact that, in this situation, the ant of the fable was not eager to lend to the singing cricket lends further realism to the analogy. II. Current environment and short-term prospects  What now? We are not yet ashore and the relatively positive assessment of the previous paragraph does not reflect a definitive evaluation. First, private consumption could be less robust should conditions on the labour market improve less than currently anticipated or even deteriorate again. Here the main worry is the ability of the Swiss economy to quickly reabsorb the 60,000 individuals working on a short-time basis. Recently, developments have been encouraging. In turn, the situation of the labour market depends on the continued recovery of the 60% share of the economy that is geared to international markets.
new mountains that underline the importance of policymakers' capacity to climb up the top. In only two years, the world we knew has dramatically changed. The humankind has faced threats that seemed to be forgotten in the modern world, an unprecedented pandemic and a war in Europe, which are not only a human tragedy, but also supply shocks with significant economic costs that may profoundly reshape the world economy and geopolitical landscape. This environment creates many challenges for the macroeconomic policies, as well. 1/4  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  The pandemic was a shock of unprecedented nature causing global supply disruptions, supply demand mismatches, and exceptional patterns of economic behaviour. However, the policy response was of unprecedented nature and size, contributing to relatively swift and job-reach recovery. Thus, for example unlike GFC when it took seven years for the euro area GDP and almost twelve years for unemployment to return to its pre-crisis level, this time it took only one year to return to pre-crisis level and unemployment to hit record low. These developments are also relevant for some of the CESEE transition economies with strong trade and financial ties with the advanced Europe. This was a showcase of how a sizable and wellcoordinated monetary and fiscal mix can mitigate the adverse effects of a large exogenous shock. Unfortunately, while calibrating our exit strategies and reverting to a normal mode, another shock wave came pushing energy and food prices further up the curve, hence accelerating inflation while overshadowing growth recovery.