speech date : 26 / 03 / 2019 speaker : deputy governor cecilia skingsley venue : entreprenorskapsforum, stockholm class : sveriges riksbank se - 103 37 stockholm ( brunkebergstorg 11 ) tel + 46 8 787 00 00 fax + 46 8 21 05 31 registratorn @ riksbank. se www. riksbank. se the effects of digitalisation on the economy * thank you for the invitation to come here and speak at entreprenorskapsforum. i cannot imagine a better place to talk about digitalisation and its potential effects on the economy. one example of technological advances and the effects of digitalisation is right here – in our mobile phones. four out of five swedes in the age range 16 - 85 had access to the internet via a mobile phone in 2018. 1 it is difficult to imagine, but today's smart phones actually have greater processing power than the computers that enabled the apollo moon landing in 1969! 2 smart phones also give us access to inconceivable amounts of information and entertainment that did not even exist in 1969. the answer to a question is only a few clicks away. as a consumer it is easy to see the value of these technological advances, although we do not in our daily lives use the capacity for anything comparable to the giant leap for mankind the moon landing entailed … the new technology provides us with entertainment, but not only that. it also affects our working lives and the economy in general. rapid developments in technology gradually lead to higher productivity and increase our welfare, but they are also a source of concern for many people. will my job still exist in the future, or will it be done by a robot or an algorithm? how can my company compete in these days of rapid technological advances? * i would like to thank erik frohm for helping prepare this speech, elizabeth nilsson for translating and meredith beechey - osterholm, charlotta edler, rebecka hallerby, jesper hansson, asa olli segendorf, marianne sterner and ulf soderstrom for valuable comments. 1 refers to statistics sweden's figures on private individuals ’ access to and use of it. 82 % of all swedes in the age range 16 - 85 years had access to the internet via a mobile phone in 2018. http : / / www. statistikdatabasen. scb.

www. svd. se / lunarstorm - tillbaka - - men - vadhande - med - skunk # sida - 2 long before this. however, none of these platforms succeeded in becoming as large or maintaining popularity for as long as facebook. the european commission found in a branch study that a majority of companies monitor their competitors ’ prices. two thirds use software to automatically adjust their prices when other companies adjust theirs. 6 way of dealing with these problems? i think there are three areas that are particularly important. however, i say this in the knowledge that they are far beyond the riksbank's sphere of influence. others hold the tools and the responsibility for them. i would say that opportunities for education and life - long skills development are entirely decisive here. even highly - educated professional groups, who have previously had a low level of unemployment, will need further development many times during their professional lives. quite simply, we need to embrace a life - long learning to be able to meet and benefit from technological advances. taxation and income transfer systems are primary tools to change the gaps in society that follow on from digitalisation. new technology also brings new actors and some of these have become very large. markets characterised by high entrance barriers, synergies and network effects can easily be concentrated in the hands of a few dominant actors. the competition authorities in different countries must therefore have cross - border cooperation to monitor and when necessary regulate various markets and in this way safeguard the interests of the general public. effects of digitalisation – a conceptual framework for monetary policy so far i have focused on the potential effects of digitalisation and what problems they can entail. i have also taken up various areas where i think we need to meet and make use of the technological advances. but we also need to investigate what effects digitalisation has had on the swedish economy and to ask ourselves what monetary policy should do. this is often a question that is not so easy to answer, as structural transformations and their effects can be difficult to identify, despite often affecting the economy over long periods of time. for a general description of how digitalisation can affect inflation, one can use a model that we presented in our monetary policy report in february 2015. 17 it provides a general view of the channels through which inflation can be influenced when a change such as digitalisation occurs. firstly, digitalisation affects companies ’ output capacity via automation, which reduces their cost pressures in total. secondly, consumers can more easily find information