##ising argument ” in the minutes of the monetary policy meetings and svensson ( 2011 ). “ in the opinion of the government, a delegation of monetary policy to an independent riksbank cannot take place unless the objective of the activities is clear. an independent riksbank must therefore be given a democratically - anchored objective for its activities. if no objective is formulated, there would be scope for an arbitrary conduct of monetary policy. … bis central bankers ’ speeches i therefore consider it important that monetary policy is conducted in a clear and comprehensible manner so that it can be evaluated easily and fairly. at present, the riksbank makes a qualitative assessment of resource utilisation based on a number of different measures. this contributes to making the justification for the monetary policy decisions unclear and it also makes it more difficult to assess the riksbank and hold it accountable. i thus instead want to focus on stabilising unemployment around a long - run sustainable rate and not on trying to stabilise a number of other, quite shaky measures of resource utilisation in the economy, such as the output gap. compared with other measures of resource utilisation, unemployment has a stronger link to household welfare, is better understood and more familiar to the public, is measured often and with fewer errors and is seldom revised. the fact that other measures of resource utilisation are not appropriate as targets for monetary policy of course does not prevent them from playing an important role as indicators when assessing inflationary pressures and constructing inflation forecasts. nor do i see that there is any support for a qualitative assessment of resource utilisation instead of a quantitative, measurable target fulfilment. in economic policy it is now wellknown that targets must be measured quantitatively to obtain sufficient weight and to be fulfilled in practice. “ what is measured gets done, ” as they say. this is why there is an inflation target and why fiscal policy endeavours to have measurable surplus targets in public finances. it is thus important to have a measurable, quantitative target fulfilment not just for inflation but also for resource utilisation, and then in the form of unemployment. monetary policy should not focus on financial stability as there are better instruments with regard to the view that monetary policy should also aim to limit growth in mortgage lending and more generally to maintain financial stability, i would like to state the following : the policy rate is a blunt, indirect and inappropriate means of

the tipping point, where the working - age population will start to decrease, is expected as early as 2024 in germany, and 2028 in france. vii this quantitative issue also raises qualitative questions, in particular about how women ( and men ) can accommodate work and other imperatives more effectively, building on research conducted by claudia goldin, winner of the nobel prize in economics this year. this transformation of work would be decisive because it would allow europe to increase its potential growth rate. more generally, the question of productivity is returning centre - stage, which leads me on to our second – digital – transformation. 2. the digital transformation we need to close the technology gap with the united states – and now with china as well. in terms of innovation, it is illustrated by the number of ict ( information and communication technologies ) - related patents which has been almost twice as high in the united states as in europe over the period 20142018. obviously, all major bigtechs are american or chinese, not european. the same is true in terms of adoption : firms, in particular smes, tend to have lower levels of digitalisation in comparison to the united states, and hence lower aggregate total factor productivity growth. ongoing technological innovations, and especially current developments in artificial intelligence ( ai ), are opening up new horizons. viii many people have concerns about how generative ai will impact certain professions and shake up labour markets. indeed, for certain tasks, ai is likely to enable capital to replace labour in the short term. but ai will boost productivity, which will bring down prices of goods and increase demand. this is why i tend to be a cautious “ techno - optimist ” : the wisest approach, drawn from economic history, is to consider ai as a potential new technological revolution that traditionally leads to page 5 sur 10 “ creative destruction ” to quote joseph schumpeter, and therefore as an opportunity rather than a threat. it means at once regulating ai and developing it, rather than fearing it. what is at stake therefore is how we can help european digital services to scale up and become global players. one prerequisite is the take - off of venture capital in the eu, which is still five times less developed than in north america ix. 3. the green transformation we learned hard lessons from our past dependence on russian oil and gas : the imperative of strategic autonomy adds to the obvious threat of global warming. both mean that we must reduce our consumption of fossil and