Increases in productivity especially in the agricultural sector are of vital importance and thus call for prompt action for the developing countries that are witnessing a shift in employment from agriculture to nonagriculture sectors. In a similar sense, measures for achieving more effective use of energy by companies and households, and for increasing the use alternative energy sources, especially renewable energy, should be the another issue among the priorities on the part of both advanced and developing countries, dependent on imported energy inputs. Esteemed Participants, A comprehensive literature has been guiding central bankers as to the type of monetary policy responses to be given to commodity price changes. The central banks following to the widely accepted advice put forth by this literature endeavor to contain the second-round effects of the commodity price increases, rather than the first-round effects. It is inevitable for commodity price increases to be reflected directly on prices, because of the high weight of goods linked to energy and other commodities in consumer price indices. That is why the first-round effects cause fluctuations in inflation. Nevertheless, temporary movements in commodity prices, unless they affect the general pricing behavior, do not affect the mediumterm outlook, but just remain as relative price changes. That is why those central banks pursuing monetary policy with a medium-term perspective prefer to refrain from sharp policy responses to the abovementioned first-round effects. Understanding the sources of the price fluctuations prior to making decisions is a prerequisite for policy makers.

Mario Draghi: IMFC Statement Statement by Mr Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, at the thirty-sixth meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, Washington DC, 13 October 2017. * * * The euro area’s economic expansion, supported by the ECB’s monetary policy measures, continues to be firm and broad-based across countries and sectors. The economy has now expanded for 17 consecutive quarters, and at a faster than expected pace in the first half of this year. Over this period, employment in the euro area has increased by almost seven million. Youth unemployment has declined from its peak above 24% in 2013 to just above 19% recently, but still remains above its pre-crisis level, and especially high in some member countries. The ongoing recovery is being largely driven by domestic forces, with both consumption and investment contributing to growth. Private consumption is fostered by employment gains and increasing household wealth. Investment continues to benefit from very favourable financing conditions and improvements in corporate profitability. Also, the broad-based global recovery is increasingly supporting euro area exports. The latest ECB staff projections foresee annual real GDP increasing by 2.2% in 2017, 1.8% in 2018 and 1.7% in 2019. Risks to the growth outlook are broadly balanced, with downside risks stemming predominantly from external sources. In this context, preserving openness underpinned by multilateral cooperation and effective financial regulation will decisively contribute to fostering a favourable external environment. While headline inflation has increased markedly over the past year, this is largely reflecting energy and food inflation.