up after ww2 with the most advanced world economies ). more importantly, he believed that the 1990s had in many respects laid the groundwork – in terms of adoption of some initial structural reforms – for the country ’ s economic revenge. he aptly warned of the perils of not continuing the structural reform effort. i shared this warning, and to some extent also the observation that we should look deeper into the past to understand the present. somehow, i felt that behind the difficulty to disinflate the economy until the mid - 1990s and the dismal growth performance following the establishment of the monetary union there were common factors, most notably the very low productivity growth in the ( protected and inefficient ) service sector of the italian economy. this made it very difficult to disinflate in the former period, as the increases in nominal wages that were matching the rise in productivity in the manufacturing sector became the benchmark for a service sector lacking the ability to produce similar productivity gains, with higher costs for the same manufacturing sector. with a single currency, in a much wider area and lacking the necessary investment response, global competition and the monetary union were not well responded and resulted in a prolonged period of low growth overall. perhaps i was less optimistic than riccardo, but our views were the closest on a few key issues : the structural nature of italy ’ s problems, the specific challenges that globalization posed to the country and the “ absolute priority ” for economic policy : strengthening human capital and investing in education. italy ’ s productivity problem today it is unfortunate – to say the least – that italy ’ s structural problems of today are broadly the same as those of 15 years ago and the key question remains how to resume italy ’ s growth. to this end, getting back “ lost productivity ” is obviously critical. perhaps the main difference from past discussions is that today these challenges have to be addressed in a more complex global environment dominated by the legacies of the global financial crisis and faster technological progress. the former has left most developed economies in a period of sluggish economic growth, spurring a lively debate among economists on longer - term prospects and raising increasing concerns among policy - makers. many scholars have highlighted how financial crises are characterized by slower recovery with respect to non - financial recessions because of inter alia a larger decline in capital accumulation, the stronger impact of the credit shock on young and fast - growing firms, and the huge costs incurred for banks ’ recapital

felipe m medalla : fortifying the foundations for the next generation of strategy leaders speech by mr felipe m medalla, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the bangko sentral ng pilipinas 2018 – 2023 strategy close - out meeting, manila, 23 june 2023. * * * to my colleagues from the monetary board ( mb ) ; our bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp ) family ; and all the awardees, some of whom will get their certificates later, magandang hapon po sa inyong lahat. as you know, because of the school where i came from [ de la salle lipa ], i love [ the color ] green, but yellow is fine, too. i noticed there was just one yellow [ referring to the sector's perceived progress in achieving their strategic outcomes ], and that was the monetary and economics sector. of course, it is very clear why - because a lot of the [ elevated ] inflation has nothing to do with monetary policy. in other words, there is nothing wrong with the color yellow or, maybe, even red. the important point is how much you worked and how much you tried. the color yellow says, " try harder and learn the lessons from the past, " [ but considering ] the extent to which exogenous factors will not change the color. delivering on our three pillars in the face of global and domestic challenges as director caryl [ valdez ]'s presentation shows us, we have done a lot in the past. i have been governor for just a year, but it has been my greatest honor to have worked and served alongside all of you - navigating the challenges of the pandemic, especially at a critical time of history when there was a huge pivot in us [ fed ] monetary policy. of course, the task is getting harder. because of the pandemic, public debt is higher ; the deficit is higher. during times like those, the pressure on the central bank is clearly going to be higher, as you can see in both interest rates and inflation. while a lot of things are outside of our control, what remains constant is [ that ] the bsp has three pillars and will dedicate all its strengths ; all its resources ; and all the hands, the minds, and the mouths in guiding the economy toward price stability ; financial stability ; and