sabine mauderer : gender economics speech by dr sabine mauderer, member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the g7 cebadi diversity, equality and inclusion summit 2022, frankfurt am main, 4 november 2022. * * * 1 introduction dear central banking colleagues, dear guests, a very warm welcome from me, too. i am very proud that the bundesbank is hosting this year's central bank - hr diversity, equality and inclusion summit. it goes without saying that diversity matters for any institution. and for central banks in particular, as they act on behalf of the wider public. i would like to start today's talk by showing you a photograph of the ecb's governing council. this photo was taken during an informal gathering at a country house hotel outside frankfurt about three years ago. let's take a look. here you can see a group of mostly middle - aged, white european men sitting around a large table. there is also one woman at the table, president lagarde. so, what can we deduce from this? first, decisions are taken by a group. that is positive by itself, because ideally the decision - making process should reflect the different values and perceptions of all members. however, the group appears to lack diversity. true, a person's outer appearance can be deceptive. it does not necessarily tell you anything about his or her value set or perceptions. nevertheless, it is widely acknowledged that diverse teams – - be it in terms of gender, ethnicity or thought – produce a wider range of opinions, leading to better and more robust results. it is also widely acknowledged that a more diverse decision - making body better reflects the blend of values and perceptions of a democratic society. 2 main part what i would like to show you today is that values and perceptions can influence precisely those economic indicators that dominate our decision - making. i will elaborate this point with two examples, starting with the concept of gross domestic product, or gdp. how do we measure economic activities? how do we value them? and what does that tell us about our value structure? as a second example, i would like to show you that humans differ in the way they perceive changes in price developments. 2. 1 gdp 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches undoubtedly, gdp is one of the most prominent economic indicators. it measures most of a country's output 1 of goods and services over a certain period.

non - performing assets ( npas ) of scheduled commercial banks as a percentage of gross advances had declined from 12. 7 per cent in 1990 - 91 to 2. 4 per cent in 2010 – 11. in case of public sector banks, this ration had dropped from 14. 0 to 2. 3 per cent over the same period. however, during the recent economic downturn, there has been a sharp deterioration in asset quality of the public sector banks ( psbs ), as the ratio reversed to 3. 2 per cent in 2011 – 12. while the npa levels are still low by historical trends or cross - country comparison, newer fragilities were obvious by the high slippage ratio and a spurt in restructuring loans. the slippage ratio of the psbs increased to 5. 7 per cent of gross advances by at the end of 2011 – 12 from 4. 2 per cent a year ago. the recovery also slowed down, especially in the stressed sectors. while some of these changes reflect the npa cycle that generally tracks economic cycle, the sectoral bottlenecks also had a role to play in such deterioration. there has been movement towards resolving the sector - specific issues, especially in power and aviation. with gradual improvement in economic activity, the stress may be further reduced across all sectors. this will bring back some of the strength of the bank balance sheets that had got eroded in recent years. unlike many other countries, india is a bank - dominated financial system. though the role of the financial markets has increased over the year, the financing pattern of the corporates suggests that banks account for over a fourth of total sources of funds for the corporates. as such, maintaining health of the banks is important so that they can nurse recovery by credit expansion with the silver linings already bis central bankers ’ speeches on the horizon. the ratio of bank credit to gdp in india is around 55 per cent, which is much below what is prevalent in many advanced economies. therefore, the challenge for indian banks is to facilitate the growth of the real sector through financial products and innovations subject to adequate safeguards and adoption of sound risk management policies. in the indian context, foreign banks can potentially play a significant supplementing role of resource mobilization to fund higher growth, apart from augmenting competition and efficiency among the banks. for example, foreign banks still have a lot of leeway available for funding infrastructure projects vis - a - vis the prescribed exposure limits. further, given the higher requirements of