mario draghi : challenges now facing the world economy statement by mr mario draghi, governor of the bank of italy, on behalf of albania, greece, italy, malta, portugal, san marino and timor leste at the seventy - eighth meeting of the development committee ( joint ministerial committee of the boards of governors of the bank and the fund on the transfer of real resources to developing countries ), washington dc, 12 october 2008. * * * energy and food prices and financial turmoil today, the economies of both developed and developing nations are faced with high energy and food prices and financial distress, which are severely testing their resilience. steady leadership, high - quality analysis, and bold answers are needed to overcome the many new challenges that now confront the development process. the world bank has acted quickly to respond to the emergency situation created in several developing countries as a result of rising food prices, demonstrating that it is indeed able to respond effectively and in a timely manner to rapidly evolving circumstances. however, more must be done. it is now important to strike the appropriate balance between alleviating shortterm needs and longer term development goals and achieve an effective division of tasks in the international donor community. the recent financial turmoil puts an extra premium on the role of both bretton woods institutions as providers of financial and advisory services, and as facilitators of international dialogue. as financial authorities worldwide contemplate how to reshape existing regulatory frameworks to prevent and contain financial instability, the bank must retain its role as a source of assistance in the allocation of limited financial resources to infrastructure and to social safety nets to promote equitable growth. development and climate change : two complementary economic challenges we welcome the new strategic framework on development and climate change for the world bank group ( wbg ). the launch of this strategy is a positive step toward facilitating a more prominent role for the bank in fighting climate change. climate change epitomizes the intricacy of development challenges in an increasingly interdependent world. adaptation and mitigation of its effects entail not only substantial financial costs, but also inter - temporal and spatial tradeoffs in welfare distribution. though the battle against climate change is often mistakenly viewed as being opposed to economic growth, it is, in fact, an economic and development issue in several respects. • first, climate change will increasingly affect the availability and the relative prices of productive factors, such as land, food, and energy. • second, the impact on economic activity of

reflections on monetary policy in the euro area at the current juncture address by the deputy governor of the bank of italy luigi federico signorini bank of italy workshop on “ unconventional monetary policy : effectiveness and risks ” rome, 21 october 2016 it is a pleasure to welcome you to the banca d ’ italia for this one - day workshop on ‘ unconventional monetary policy : effectiveness and risks ’. i understand that you have a full agenda, with nine dense and thought - provoking papers packed into a single day. i will keep my remarks very brief. your discussions today are sure to be policy - relevant and timely. the governing council of the ecb has repeatedly asserted, most recently yesterday, that the asset purchase programme ( app ) will continue at the current pace of purchases until at least march 2017, or possibly beyond if necessary, and in any case until the governing council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its target. properly measuring the effects of the app is therefore a priority for the euro area monetary policymakers. the eurosystem ’ s expanded app has been in place for almost two years, exerting clear and sizeable downward pressure on government bond and other financial asset yields ; these, in turn, have had favourable effects on private sector financing conditions. monetary policy on its own cannot produce growth. it can, however, create favourable conditions for a cyclical upturn ; it may facilitate the adoption of other measures, such as structural reforms, by limiting the negative short - run impact that is sometime associated with them. as a joint outcome of the app and the other extraordinarily expansionary measures recently adopted by the eurosystem, the cost of bank loans is now historically low and, even more importantly, the dispersion of lending rates across countries is once again close to the levels prevailing in the pre - crisis period. this helps to preserve the integrity of the monetary union. still, almost ten years after the onset of the financial crisis and five years after the start of the sovereign debt crisis, the slack in the euro - area economy persists. a number of questions are being raised on the functioning of the expansionary measures recently adopted by the eurosystem. how does the transmission mechanism work when the economy is at the lower bound of the interest rates? might the working of those measures be impaired after some time? what are the interactions with other developments, such as commodity prices, financial regulation, legacy assets in banking, and conditions in the world