I try to sum up these principles which guide us not only in weathering this storm, but also in sunnier days, when the role of crisis prevention cannot be overlooked. The first and foremost principle rests upon the authorities’ ability to carry out prompt and preemptive actions with the best set of available information in dealing with changes in the market conditions and practices. Of course, we all know that to be able to identify where the risks are is no longer a simple task in this current environment. But once any significant sign of imbalances in the economy is detected, central banks need to be vigilant and act in a timely manner. True, it is difficult to counter the sentiments of the government, investors and  BIS Review 120/2008  1  the public alike if central banks play their role of “taking away the punch bowl when the party gets going”. In a nutshell, this implies that we central bankers need to be watchful and decisive, not to be swayed by these voices. Second, we also need to maintain flexibility in the conduct of central banking policies. By this, I mean flexibility in terms of policy instruments and also in terms of using innovative methods to deal with the evolving challenges. For example, we may not be able to just rely on, say, using traditional solutions of raising interest rates to address rising inflation, but we may also have to resort to a mix and match of the toolkit available to us.
The domestic economy is expected to slow down during the rest of year, being conditioned by the weakening of the domestic and foreign demand. Given the consolidated fiscal behaviour and the slowed foreign demand, the performance of the private domestic demand will determine the economic activity growth. However, its two components, consumption and investments, have not shown any recovery signal so far. Expected developments at home and abroad result in a contained balance of inflationary pressures, determining a slow increase in consumer price in the future. The demand growth  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  below the potential of the economy in the upcoming period will continue to exercise low inflationary pressures. At the same time, the pressures generated by supply-side factors appear contained. Based on the insofar developments of the determinant factors of inflation and the projections for their development in the future, with 90% probability, inflation will range within 1.0% – 3.3% band after 12 months. *** Based on the analyses of the information set out above, the Supervisory Council holds that pressures on consumer prices at home remain low over the monetary policy relevant horizon; they have been, however, on the downside over the recent months. On the demand side, below-potential economic growth will continue to generate low inflationary pressures, while shocks from the supply side are expected to be moderate. The expected developments in economy and inflation imply that the simulating nature of the monetary policy will be retained during the period ahead.