ajith nivard cabraal : management accountants – focusing on the repositioning of the profession special address by mr ajith nivard cabraal, governor of the central bank of sri lanka, at the global summit, organised by the institute of cost and works accountants of india on “ repositioning the management accountant ”, new delhi, 12 january 2008. * * * the theme of the conference suggests that the management accountants of today are de facto doing something different to the traditional role of the management accountant. the new de facto role seems to be more of that of a strategist and a performance management specialist, rather than a historical “ information supplying ” or even a “ decision facilitating ” role of an accountant. if one were to drill down, we may perhaps note that the education and training of those who have become strategists and performance management specialists may not have necessarily been intended that way. but yet, it happened. how did this happen? • perhaps the training, although intended to create management accountants, was appropriate to create a strategist. • perhaps the training, coupled with business developments and public expectations, shaped management accountants to become strategists or the deliverers of outputs rather than contributors of inputs only. • perhaps the ability of the management accountant, as a result of his core disciplines, enabled him to respond effectively to unfolding developments and then deliver new outputs, and such abilities were recognized by the business community in the course of time. if all this happened without anyone consciously or deliberately “ positioning ” the management accountant in that role, what is the need to “ re - position ” the management accountant now? now that some re - positioning has already taken place, albeit accidentally, need we do more? should we let the status quo remain? why should we tinker with the management accountant now? by the time we do that, would the goal posts have shifted due to the rapid developments that are always taking place? to answer these questions, we may need to take a long hard look at the future of the global business environment over the next 10 years. what do we see? we see • new developments : tremendous change and a rapid rate of changing ; • blurring of traditional roles : different people doing old jobs ; new people doing new jobs ; • new skills and multi - disciplinary teams at work ; • status quo being challenged all the time and impermanence becoming a feature ; • volatility becoming a given fact and chaos being the

average ( across the three institutions ) of 8. 8 % in 2008 to 10. 3 % by 2013. 5 nuancing the picture there are nevertheless two important qualifications to make here. the first is that estimates of structural unemployment are surrounded by considerable uncertainty, in particular in real time. for example, research by the european commission suggests that estimates of the non - accelerating wage rate of unemployment ( nawru ) in the current situation are likely to overstate the magnitude of unemployment linked to structural factors, notably in the countries most severely hit by the crisis. 6 the second qualification is that behind the aggregate data lies a very heterogeneous picture. the current unemployment rate in the euro area of 11. 5 % is the ( weighted ) average of unemployment rates close to 5 % in germany and 25 % in spain. structural developments also differ : analysis of the beveridge curve at the country level reveals, for example, a pronounced inward shift in germany, whereas in france, italy and in particular spain, the curves move outward. in terms of calculating structural unemployment, the european commission estimates a nawru while oecd estimates the nairu using a filter technique that seeks to disentangle movements in the unemployment rates into a structural and a cyclical component, on the basis of a phillips - curve relationship. the estimates by the imf are not based on any “ official ” method – meaning that they do not publish a model or a given methodology, since their internal estimates are subject to judgement. european commission, “ labour market developments in europe 2013 ”, european economy 6 / 2013. bis central bankers ’ speeches this heterogeneity reflects different initial conditions, such as varying sectoral compositions of employment ( in particular the share employed in construction ), as well as the fact that unemployment rates have historically been persistently higher in some euro area countries than others. 7 but it also reflects the relationship between labour market institutions and the impact of shocks on employment. 8 the economies that have weathered the crisis best in terms of employment tend also to be those with more flexibility in the labour market to adjust to economic conditions. in germany, for example, the inward shift in the beveridge curve seen over the course of the crisis follows a trend that began in the mid - 2000s after the introduction of the hartz labour market reforms. its relatively stronger employment performance was also linked to the fact that german firms had instruments available to reduce employees ’ working time at reasonable costs – i. e