The pick-up in economic activity in the United Kingdom has been sharper than in the United States and, according to most analysts, it appears to be underpinned by sounder foundations. Inflation is holding on a path consistent with the target of 2% and it should also be borne in mind that the prices of certain assets, housing in particular, have been moving on a rising trend and have reignited debate on the role the central bank and its monetary policy should play in preventing potential bubbles. Here, although the Bank of England has not yet modified its accommodative monetary policy stance either, the prevailing expectations are already discounting a more or less immediate change. The latest messages from the Bank of England suggest, in any event, that when rates begin to rise they will do so very gradually, remaining below historical values for a lengthy period. The monetary policy of the Bank of Japan The differences are even more marked in the case of the Bank of Japan. Nor can we forget that, prior to the international crisis, the Japanese economy had not overcome the effects of its own domestic crisis which began in the 1990s following a substantial credit boom and a burgeoning real estate bubble. The various economic programmes implemented since have not managed to put the Japanese economy back on a stable growth path, illustrating the difficulty involved in restoring normality when an economy enters a perverse cycle of deflation and contraction of activity.
However, beyond the banking sector’s response, if society is to derive maximum benefit from digitalisation while minimising the costs of the transition, I believe that a comprehensive response is required from the public authorities. A response which surely transcends the financial sphere, to which the financial authorities can no doubt make an important contribution. That is why we are going to focus precisely on improving digital skills in the coming years using, for example, the Financial Education Plan launched jointly by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  Digital Transformation, the CNMV and the Banco de España. Because we are fully aware that digital literacy is also part of our financial education. That is also why the Banco de España has long identified the economic and population differences in urban and rural areas (also in terms of access to general services and, more specifically, to banking services) as phenomena that warrant priority analytical attention. Such analysis must provide the basis for informed decision-making. Our most recent annual report, presented before Parliament last year, included a chapter dedicated to these issues. In the coming months we shall present the findings of several studies which examine in depth the phenomenon of financial exclusion in relation to digitalisation processes. Specifically, we are going to present a comparative study of access to cash in Spain and in other euro area countries, focusing particularly on the differences between rural and urban areas.