erik thedeen : monetary policy in recent years and key issues ahead speech by mr erik thedeen, governor of the sveriges riksbank, at danske bank, stockholm, 22 november 2024. * * * thank you for the invitation! today, i would like to start by looking back at the past few years – years that have been eventful from a monetary policy perspective, to put it mildly. i shall then go on to discuss the riksbank's latest interest rate decision. finally, i would like to widen my view and discuss the environment in which monetary policy will operate in the long run. several factors behind the rapid rise in inflation the starting point for the rise in inflation was the pandemic in 2020 and the shock to the economy that the spread of infection and the measures to contain it caused. gdp fell sharply and redundancy notices rose to record levels as companies'supply chains broke down and production and consumption stalled. there were also major fluctuations as some consumption first virtually stopped and then rapidly increased again as the economy started to recover. for sweden, this recovery proved to be faster than after other crises. demand was strong not only in the swedish economy but also globally. this contributed to a rapid rise in commodity prices in 2021 and a significant increase in freight prices when global trade adjusted after the pandemic. in addition, various supply shocks also contributed to the rapid rise in inflation. in 2021, energy prices, in particular electricity prices, started to increase rapidly. when russia invaded ukraine in early 2022, inflation received an extra boost as energy and food prices rose even more. after a time, services prices also increased and, by early 2023, more than 8 out of 10 prices in the cpif basket were increasing by more than 4 per cent. thus there was a broad and sharp rise in prices. that firms started to pass on their increased costs to consumer prices to such a large extent was probably a result of the succession of large cost increases and the large pent - up need to consume among households. higher prices may also have become more acceptable – both among firms, who saw that other firms were able to raise their prices more, and among households, who realised that firms were in a vulnerable position after the pandemic. unexpectedly high resilience despite large impact on interest rate sensitiveparts of the economy cpif inflation rose from 4 per cent at the beginning of 2022 to peak at just above 10 per cent in december

t t mboweni : south africa - a land of hope and opportunity remarks by mr t t mboweni, governor of the south african reserve bank, at an anc breakfast meeting, johannesburg, 22 june 2005. * * * ladies and gentlemen distinguished guests thank you for inviting me here this morning to say a word or two about the south african economy. when i received this invitation to be here this morning, a number of questions arose in my mind. the primary one being whether a governor of a central bank should speak at occasions such as this which are organised by political organisations. it was a vexing question which required of me a serious answer. central bank governors have to demonstrate at all times their commitment to the independence of central banks from political influence. in fact central bank independence also means rebutting any attempt by anyone including market participants to influence their decisions or interfere in their operational work. at the same time, central bank governors have to engage in extensive communications with the markets, the general population, governments and parliaments. so any opportunity to communicate should be seriously considered and if time permits, should be entertained whether from a political party, market participants or any other organisation which is reputable. so any political organisations wishing to invite me to their functions are welcome to do so. we just have to negotiate time. it is against this background that i accepted your invitation to be here this morning. south africa is still very much a country in transition. it is a country of many hopes and opportunities. firstly, the political system is maturing. most certainly, the political system is entrenching democratic values and systems. people stand for elections within their parties - sometimes squabbling very badly privately and in the media in their endeavours to be elected, they avail themselves as candidates for local council chambers, provincial legislatures and the national parliament. debate is generally developing in its robustness. more often than not acrimoniously so. not a place for the weak! secondly the media - the fourth estate - is lively and maturing too. public officials and private executives are closely scrutinised to check on their performances and good corporate governance standing in order to move the country forward. the media questions and exposes. sometimes their approach is certainly questionable but on the whole they are making a good contribution to our society. there is room for improvement particularly in financial journalism - a matter being attended to by some journalism schools. but an open and democratic society by definition requires a vigorous