Growth will also slow down due to the recent financial turmoil.   A lower rate of growth in Europe and the United States will slow down growth in Sweden too, as these regions constitute such important export markets for Swedish companies. This is one reason why monetary policy in Sweden was made more expansionary September.   We can expect monetary policy to remain expansionary in the United States, the euro area and the United Kingdom as it may be necessary to compensate for the fact that several countries will need to implement fiscal policy tightening in a relatively weak economic climate.   In my view, expectations that monetary policy will continue to be expansionary in the United States, the euro area and the United Kingdom have also had an expansionary effect on Swedish monetary policy. When the repo rate was set in September, I supported the decision to leave the repo rate unchanged and advocated a larger downward adjustment of the repo rate path than the majority. One of the important factors behind this stance was my view that Swedish interest rates cannot deviate too much from foreign rates without affecting the exchange rate, and the exchange rate is of great importance to inflation. Slowdown in economic activity abroad During the summer the financial markets have been characterised by considerable turbulence as a result of the sovereign debt problems in the euro area and the United States.
Speech  Embargo 6 September 2018, 6.30 pm  After the storm: ten years on, how weatherproof is the Swiss banking system today? University of Lucerne  Fritz Zurbrügg Vice Chairman of the Governing Board * Swiss National Bank Lucerne, 6 September 2018 © Swiss National Bank, Berne, 2018 (speech given in German)  *  The speaker would like to thank Till Ebner and Rita Fleer for their support in drafting this speech. He also extends his thanks to Nicole Allenspach, Jürg Blum and Jacqueline Thomet, as well as SNB Language Services. Page 1/14  Ladies and Gentlemen Almost exactly ten years ago, on 15 September 2008, Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest US investment bank at the time, filed for bankruptcy. The ensuing storm engulfed the global financial markets with a ferocity and magnitude that took all market observers by surprise. The collapse of Lehman Brothers made it clear that many financial institutions could not withstand such a buffeting without government support. The financial crisis spilled over rapidly into the real economy, resulting in the deepest global recession since the Great Depression. We all have our own personal memories of this difficult period. Many of you are probably thinking of 16 October 2008, the day on which the Swiss authorities stepped in to support UBS with a comprehensive package of measures. Back then, I was working at the Federal Finance Administration.