monetary stimulus. certainly, should conditions warrant, we may need to ease further, but we must not lose sight of the prerequisite of longer - run price stability for realizing the economy's full growth potential over time. despite the recent economic slowdown, the past decade has been extraordinary for the american economy. the synergies of key technologies markedly elevated prospective rates of return on high - tech investments, led to a surge in business capital spending, and significantly increased the growth rate of structural productivity. the capitalization of those higher expected returns lifted equity prices, which in turn contributed to a substantial pickup in household spending on a broad range of goods and services, especially on new homes and durable goods. this increase in spending by both households and businesses exceeded even the enhanced rise in real household incomes and business earnings. the evident attractiveness of investment opportunities in the united states induced substantial inflows of funds from abroad, raising the dollar's exchange rate while financing a growing portion of domestic spending. by early 2000, the surge in household and business purchases had increased growth of the stocks of many types of consumer durable goods and business capital equipment to rates that could not be sustained. even though demand for a number of high - tech products was doubling or tripling annually, in some cases new supply was coming on even faster. overall, capacity in high - tech manufacturing industries, for example, rose nearly 50 percent last year, well in excess of its already rapid rate of increase over the previous three years. hence, a temporary glut in these industries and falling short - term prospective rates of return were inevitable at some point. this tendency was reinforced by a more realistic evaluation of the prospects for returns on some high - tech investments, which, while still quite elevated by historical standards, apparently could not measure up to the previous exaggerated hopes. moreover, as i testified before this committee last year, the economy as a whole was growing at an unsustainable pace, drawing further on an already diminished pool of available workers and relying increasingly on savings from abroad. clearly, some moderation in the pace of spending was necessary and expected if the economy was to progress along a more balanced growth path. in the event, the adjustment occurred much faster than most businesses anticipated, with the slowdown likely intensified by the rise in the cost of energy that until quite recently had drained businesses and households of purchasing power. growth of outlays of consumer durable goods slowed in the middle of 2000, and shipments of non

- founded by the hkma and the sfc. 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches first, on standards. a common set of green standards, to the extent possible, is important to enhance the transparency, comparability and efficiency of climate finance. hong kong is a front runner in setting regulatory requirements for the financial sector. we are the first asian jurisdiction mandating climate - related disclosure across the financial sector by 2025, in line with the global framework set by the task force on climate - related financial disclosures. we also made an early commitment to adopting new standards promulgated by the international sustainability standards board. hong kong adopts the common ground taxonomy jointly developed by china and the eu. we are now exploring the development of a green classification framework on the basis of the china - eu taxonomy, in order to provide the necessary disclosure and guidance to inform capital allocation and encourage market discipline. the hkma has set clear rules – for example by formulating clear supervisory requirements and integrating climate - risk into the supervisor - driven stress - testing framework. the various regulatory requirements help build climate resilience into our banking and financial sector. in the process, financial intermediaries such as banks also act as facilitators to help the real sector adapt and transition, in line with global consensus and commitment to achieving carbon neutrality. second, on data. currently, there is a lack of accessible, standardised data and analytics support in the market. it presents a challenge, not just for climate risk management but for other purposes such as portfolio assessment and business development. we are working with other regulators and the private sector to address these issues, by improving data accessibility and developing a data repository and analytics capability for the industry. we are making good progress. one recent example is the collaboration with the carbon disclosure project, a leading international environmental disclosure platform, to launch a climate risk assessment project that assists corporates especially smes in reporting company - level, climate - related data to help financial institutions assess risk and make credit decisions. let me now turn to the third critical element, which is talent. and this is also our key focus area. we are undertaking multiple tasks here. number one is training. we began by collating and sharing information about highquality training courses and qualifications through a centralised platform run by the centre for green and sustainable finance. number two is incentives. through a government - funded green finance training scheme, we provide subsidies to help market practitioners, students and graduates obtain