union. the preparations should a majority of the swedish vote “ yes ” to the euro, work will begin to pave the way for swedish entry into monetary union. the riksdag is then expected during the autumn to make a formal decision that will enable sweden in practice to become a member of monetary union. at the same time, it is necessary that the legal and practical adaptations that are a precondition for our participation be prepared and decided upon before the eu ’ s finance ministers within the scope of the ecofin council take the final decision. if the referendum results in a “ yes ” vote, the riksbank will be required to help ensure that entry into monetary union proceeds in a stable, smooth manner. since the middle of the 1990s, the riksbank has been collaborating with the financial sector via the sifs group - consultation and information with the financial sector - with a view to ascertaining the adaptation measures necessary ahead of a potential swedish changeover to the euro and how long these measures would take to implement. the aim has been to make the time between a swedish riksdag decision in favour of participation and entry itself as short as possible. the swedish government has recommended that sweden, in the event of a “ yes ” vote, should strive to enter monetary union on 1 january 2006, and that this should be carried out through a direct changeover or “ big bang ”. the switch - over of all electronic transactions in society would then be made simultaneously with the cash changeover. this proposal has been welcomed by the financial sector, and there are good chances therefore of a smooth, efficient changeover to the euro at the beginning of 2006. for the riksbank, a changeover to the euro would of course be a major project. the practical preparations would include ensuring the production of new banknotes and coins, as well as the replacement of the old ones. the latter would entail a considerable logistical operation. for example, a couple of hundred large lorries would be required simply to deliver the necessary coins at the time of the introduction. but there is more to it than that. computer systems would need to be converted, not least at the riksbank, but also in many other areas of society. the riksbank would also expend a lot of effort on providing information to the general public about the implications of a changeover. in addition, there would be a number of changes in our own operations, which i will return to

svante oberg : wage formation and monetary policy speech by mr svante oberg, deputy governor of the sveriges riksbank, at folkets hus, stockholm, 5 december 2008. * * * my speech today is supposed to be about wage formation and monetary policy, and i will devote most of my time here to this subject. however, given that we brought the monetary policy meeting forward to wednesday and that we then reduced the repo rate to 2 per cent. i would like to begin by saying a few words about this decision. as you may know, the members of the executive board do not usually discuss their own position on the latest interest rate decision until the minutes of the meeting have been published. it is only then that the views of the individual members are presented officially. the minutes of the meeting on wednesday will be published on 17 december. my comments on the interest rate decision and the current situation thus reflect the collective view of the executive board. we chose to move the monetary policy meeting forward by two weeks because it became clear to us at an early stage that there was a need for a significant reduction in the repo rate. in the prevailing situation, our assessment was that it was important to make a quick decision. we thus reduced the repo rate by 1. 75 percentage points. this is a substantial cut and it has been made on the grounds that since the previous monetary policy report was published in october there has been an unexpectedly rapid and tangible downturn in economic activity in sweden and abroad. so, in order to prevent development being far too weak and inflation too low, a significant reduction in the repo rate was required. the fact that the interest rate needed to be cut substantially is also due to monetary policy not having such a large impact recently as it normally does. with lower policy rates and a more expansionary fiscal policy in sweden and abroad, we expect to see an easing - off in the slowdown of the economy and a recovery at the end of 2009. in this acute situation, one may wonder whether wage formation is something that we need to discuss just now. obviously, wage formation is not the most central issue for monetary policy at the moment. at the same time, it is important to be able to stand firm when a storm is brewing. today, the swedish economy stands on much firmer foundations than it did in the early 1990s – largely thanks to the lessons that we learned from the crisis at that time and the improvements that have been