1 Speech by Andrea Enria, Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at the Banking Seminar organized by De  Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam, 11 March 2019 2 16 supervisory agencies and 2 international financial organization were interviewed for the purpose of this  survey. 3/3  BIS central bankers' speeches
I could talk about r-star at great length, but you may be relieved to hear that for the purpose of this speech, there’s just one point I want to make: r-star has fallen, not only in the U.S., but around the world. 1/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  Fundamental shifts have been occurring in the two main drivers of r-star over the past two decades: demographics and productivity growth. Lower fertility rates and aging populations, as well as slower productivity growth, have pushed down r-star by as much as two percentage points in a number of developed nations. These structural shifts are having fundamental effects on real interest rates, growth, and inflation. A number of advanced economies have inflation below desired levels and longer-term interest rates that are well below where they were a decade ago. There are, of course, a few outliers, but the commonalities between the world’s developed economies are becoming more and more apparent. There’s no doubt that the U.S. is experiencing first-hand the effects of the structural shifts in demographics and productivity growth. But the fact that these changes are a common experience for so many developed economies creates challenges to our economic prospects at home. Slowing Global Growth Which brings me to the second trend I highlighted: slowing global growth. This story—of low interest rates, low inflation, and slow growth—is showing up in the data. The latest numbers from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) follow the recent trend of steady downward revisions of growth estimates.