My colleague Lars E. O. Svensson has, for example, claimed that unemployment has been unnecessarily high since the mid-1990s because monetary policy has not been used to a sufficient extent to counteract shocks that have pushed down inflation.3 It is of course important to determine what the situation was with regard to resource utilisation before the financial crisis in order to be able to assess the level that unemployment should eventually fall to. But this is not the issue that I intend to focus on today: my focus  3  See the paper “The possible unemployment cost of average inflation below a credible target” or the speech “Monetary policy and inflation: monetary policy is too tight”, 16 January 2013. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5  here is instead on the issue of how economic policy could be used more effectively to stabilise business cycle fluctuations in the future despite the risks to financial stability. Limited stimulation from fiscal policy In contrast to the situation in many European countries and the United States, there was a significant surplus in public net lending in Sweden when the financial crisis began. In the euro area and the United States, public net lending as a percentage of GDP had shown an average deficit of just under 2 per cent during the 10 years before the crisis.
Mugur Isărescu: The macroeconomic perspective in Romania Welcome speech by Mr Mugur Isărescu, Governor of the National Bank of Romania, at the Romanian-Czech Business Forum, Bucharest, 20 May 2014. *  *  *  Your Excellency, President Zeman, you are most welcome here, at the National Bank of Romania, a place that holds within its walls countless pieces of history, tails of how Romania has grown into a modern state. We are privileged to greet here, today. Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen, Allow me to extend a very warm welcome and thank you all for gracing us with your presence at the Romanian-Czech Business Forum. It is a great pleasure for the National Bank of Romania, and an honor for me and for the members of the board, to host what will be a substantial discussion about the challenges currently facing Europe, in particular the development of economic relations between the Czech Republic and Romania. Here, at the National Bank of Romania, we take pride in having always been a forum for debating, in an open and profound manner, the themes and trends defining our age. A few weeks ago we celebrated the 134-th anniversary of the Romanian National Bank, a central bank ranking 16-th in the world. During the break, after the working sessions, you are kindly invited to visit/walk the outstanding halls of the Old Palace of our national bank.