simply too important to be left to the market. 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches second, in the absence of a public anchor, the emergence of new kinds of digital assets could harbour instability and confusion among citizens about what is money and what is not. take for example crypto assets, held or used by 16 % of americans and 10 % of europeans in 2021. their unbacked variants – such as bitcoin or ether – are too volatile to act as a means of payment. and while stablecoins are designed to be less volatile, and therefore more suitable for payments, they are vulnerable to runs - and often not backed at all as we witnessed earlier this year. this highlights the importance of the european crypto - assets regulation ( mica ) that will protect consumers against some of the risks associated with crypto assets. third, the entry of big techs into payments could increase the risk of market domination and dependence on foreign payment technologies, with consequences for europe's strategic autonomy. already now more than two thirds of european card payment transaction are run by companies with headquarters outside the european union. designing digital public money by designing digital public money we can get ahead of these developments and ensure that confidence in the monetary system is maintained and innovation is nurtured. issuing a digital euro would indeed safeguard people's confidence that " one euro is one euro ", allowing them to convert private digital money at par into digital central bank money. it would ensure that money continues to be denominated in euros. and it would be based on a european infrastructure, facilitating intermediaries to scale payments innovation throughout the euro area and thus strengthen europe's strategic autonomy. our work on exploring the underlying rationale, potential benefits and risks and core design principles of a digital euro has made good progress. it is not a race, but as a matter of fact the euro area is at a relatively advanced stage in exploring a central bank digital currency ( cbdc ). but to realise this vision, the focus of our work now shifts to the concrete design and embedding the digital euro in a sound legal framework. this is as an area where colegislators have an even more important role to play. i'm therefore very much looking forward to the legislative proposal for establishing a digital euro which the european commission will propose shortly. in particular, co - legislators must define the balance between competing public objectives in the policy areas that the treaty assigned to them. two aspects come to

philip lowe : today ’ s monetary policy decision speech by mr philip lowe, governor of the reserve bank of australia, sydney, 3 may 2022. * * * thank you for joining us this afternoon. i would like to use this opportunity to explain the reserve bank board ’ s decision today and to answer your questions. today, the board decided to increase the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 35 basis points and to increase the rate paid on exchange settlement balances from 0 per cent to 25 basis points. it also decided to not reinvest the proceeds of the bank ’ s government bond holdings as they mature. these decisions reflect a judgement by the board that it is now time to begin withdrawing some of the extraordinary monetary support that was put in place to help the australian economy during the pandemic. two considerations are particularly relevant here. the first is that the economy has been very resilient, unemployment is low and economic growth is expected to be strong this year. the second is that inflation has picked up more quickly, and to a higher level, than was expected and there is evidence that labour costs are increasing more quickly. in these circumstances, the board judged that it was appropriate to start the process of normalising monetary conditions. i acknowledge that this increase in interest rates comes earlier than the guidance the bank was providing during the dark days of the pandemic. during that period, especially in 2020, the national health situation was precarious and the economic outlook was dire and clouded by great uncertainty. the board wanted to do everything it could to help the country get through that difficult period. in those unprecedented times, we judged that the economic damage from the pandemic was likely to require that interest rates remain at very low levels for years. as things have turned out, the economy has been much more resilient than was expected, which is clearly a welcome development. the combination of fiscal and monetary support has worked and the development of vaccines in record time has allowed our society to return to more normal functioning earlier than was thought possible. australians have also proven to be resilient and have adapted to the changed circumstances. as a result of these developments, unemployment has come down quickly. the unemployment rate now stands at 4 per cent. it is expected to decline further to around 3½ per cent over the course of this year, which would be the lowest level in nearly 50 years. labour force participation has also risen to a record level and a higher share of working -