Urban Bäckström: The Swedish economy Speech by Mr Urban Bäckström, Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank and Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of the Bank for International Settlements, to the Swedish Shareholders’ Association, Stockholm, 27 November 2001. *  *  *  First a word of thanks for the invitation to this evening’s meeting. I intend to talk about the Swedish economy and monetary policy. The past year has been marked by a successive weakening of economic activity in Sweden as well as abroad. Forecasters all over the world have made sizeable downward revisions to the prospects for growth both this year and next. Consider the picture of the economic future that Consensus Economics compiles once a month from the predictions of 200 professional observers. At the beginning of this year the combined assessment was that in 2001 and 2002, GDP growth in the United States and Sweden would amount to between 2.6 and 3.5 per cent. It was foreseen that the slowdown would be comparatively moderate and be followed by a quick recovery. Today, growth in the United States is judged to be just a modest 1 per cent or so this year and even weaker in 2002. In Sweden, GDP is now expected to rise 1.4 this year and 1.7 per cent next year. In other words, it now looks as though the slowdown will be both deeper and more protracted than many observers counted on less than a year ago.
In its featured plenary and multi-track programmes which include the Regulators Forum, the International Shariah Scholars Forum, the Global Islamic Liquidity Management Conference and the Global Islamic Finance Taxation Forum, a new highlight is the Bridging Economies Forum that aims to discuss the Islamic finance prospects and opportunities across regions, and to explore possible market linkages that can be generated through Islamic finance. Several important signings of MoUs will also be taking place during this Forum, highlighting increased commitment and international cooperation. Let me now conclude with an extension of our appreciation to the panel of distinguished speakers for their contribution to GIFF 2012. I would also like to once again, express our gratitude to the Honourable Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, His Excellency Mr. Ali Babacan for being with us today to speak at this event. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3