The meeting of the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors (held in London, 21 February 1998) called for a “profound and broad-ranging debate on the lessons of events in Asia and their implications for strengthening the international monetary system, building on the reforms initiated at Halifax”. The G7 identified five main areas where progress had to be made. This is not the place to take stock of the proposals that have been put forward. Let me just air a few remarks on certain measures, which I consider as particularly important. I would like to discuss the proposals addressing imbalances and structural distortions in the crisis countries before considering those concerning the international financial markets and institutions issues. Efforts to strengthen emerging countries financial systems making them more resilient to external shocks The main effort contributing to the strengthening of emerging market economies’ banking systems is the adoption of the set of Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision which have been widely endorsed by emerging countries authorities. The IMF in coordination with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is designing indicators to assess progress in implementation by emerging countries. The adoption of the implementation of the Core Principles as a criterion giving access to the newly created Contingent Credit Line is a strong incentive for members to adopt them effectively. The design of Deposit Insurance Schemes is another important measure contributing to reduce or eliminate implicit government guarantees limiting moral hazard on the lenders as well as on the borrowers side.

Christine Lagarde: ECB press conference - introductory statement Introductory statement by Ms Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, and Mr Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, 4 May 2023. *** Good afternoon, the Vice-President and I welcome you to our press conference. The inflation outlook continues to be too high for too long. In light of the ongoing high inflation pressures, the Governing Council today decided to raise the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points. Overall, the incoming information broadly supports the assessment of the medium-term inflation outlook that we formed at our previous meeting. Headline inflation has declined over recent months, but underlying price pressures remain strong. At the same time, our past rate increases are being transmitted forcefully to euro area financing and monetary conditions, while the lags and strength of transmission to the real economy remain uncertain. Our future decisions will ensure that the policy rates will be brought to levels sufficiently restrictive to achieve a timely return of inflation to our two per cent medium-term target and will be kept at those levels for as long as necessary. We will continue to follow a data-dependent approach to determining the appropriate level and duration of restriction. In particular, our policy rate decisions will continue to be based on our assessment of the inflation outlook in light of the incoming economic and financial data, the dynamics of underlying inflation, and the strength of monetary policy transmission.