mr. greenspan presents an update on economic conditions in the united states testimony of the chairman of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, mr. alan greenspan, before the joint economic committee of the us congress on 10 / 6 / 98. mr. chairman and members of the committee, i am pleased to have the opportunity to present an update on economic conditions in the united states. such an assessment cannot be made in isolation but rather depends critically on what is happening in the rest of the world and how those developments affect the performance of the american economy. in my previous appearance before this committee last october, my remarks focused mainly on the turbulence that was then evident in world financial markets and, in particular, on the problems that had emerged in a number of asian economies. the tentative assessment offered then was that the economies of asia were in for some trying times but that the situation did not seem likely to threaten the expansion of this country ’ s economy. that assessment, i believe, still is essentially correct, although uncertainties about the degree of restraint that will be coming from abroad remain substantial. earlier this year, the situations in most of the asian countries seemed to be stabilizing in some respects, but, as the events of the past few weeks have demonstrated, the restoration of normally functioning economies will not necessarily go smoothly. in some cases, the adjustments that are needed to improve external balances and to correct existing misallocations of resources have been accompanied by sharp increases in inflation, rising unemployment, abrupt cutbacks in living standards, and increases in uncertainty and insecurity. the heightened social and political pressures that can develop in such circumstances not only introduce added complications into economic policymaking but also make it even more difficult to foresee how the processes of adjustment will play out across the afflicted economies. that the american economy would be affected to some degree by spillover from the problems in asia was never in doubt, even though the timing and magnitude of the impact have been difficult to predict with much confidence. many months ago, businesses in this country began anticipating a worsening of our trade balance with the asian countries, and incoming economic data have since confirmed those expectations. meanwhile, other influences on trade - - such as the strength of demand growth in the united states and a dollar that has been strong against a wide array of currencies - have persisted. in total, us exports of goods and services turned down in real terms in the first quarter of 1998, the first

jorg asmussen : opening remarks at the closing ceremony of the eurosystem needs analysis project speech by mr jorg asmussen, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the closing ceremony of the eurosystem needs analysis project funded by the european union, skopje, 10 july 2013. * * * governor bogov, ambassador orav, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to be here in skopje today to mark the close of a successful needs analysis programme. i have just handed over the related report to my colleague, governor bogov. this report lays down recommendations for changes to the central bank law and regulations, processes and practices in order to prepare the national bank of the republic of macedonia ( nbrm ) for eu accession. i hope that this report will help in developing the central bank ’ s strategy going forward. in fact, we are confident it will, as we know that some of the recommendations have already been successfully implemented. the report is the result of the nine month programme and was produced by the ecb and national central bank colleagues following an analysis of your current practices. [ the areas covered by the programme are accounting, banknotes, economic analysis and research, human resources, information technology, internal audit, legal services, monetary and exchange rate policy, payment systems and statistics. ] i would like to stress, however, that we could not have produced such a comprehensive needs analysis report without the excellent cooperation and openness of nbrm staff. let me emphasise that the programme with the nbrm stands in the tradition of other ecbcoordinated technical cooperation programmes with eu candidate and potential candidate countries conducted over the past decade. central banks of candidate and potential candidate countries are privileged partners for our technical cooperation. it is in the interest of all of us, that once a central bank joins the escb, and eventually the eurosystem, it is able to fully perform its function in the system. the report is not the only tangible outcome of this programme. throughout the whole project, nbrm staff have met many colleagues from national central banks as well as the ecb. this means that nbrm experts now have a network of colleagues to whom they can turn for advice or to share information. moreover, the information does not only flow in one direction. european experts have also expanded their lists of contacts in the region. the benefit of such programmes is that both parties gain in understanding and learn from each other. as you can