financial goal and presents information on coverdell education savings accounts, u. s. savings bonds, and qualified tuition programs as types of savings vehicles for achieving that goal. programs on estate planning and retirement are offered, as well as seminars on financial planning and advanced investment. many of these programs are geared to those employees who have been in the workforce for many years. however, understanding that many of our young people don ’ t receive formal course work in financial matters, we designed a program that is more meaningful to new professionals. this program, which is designed for those young people just entering the workforce, discusses the importance of starting to save at a young age, homeownership, advanced education, and avoiding debt. workplace education benefits both the employer and employee. for the employee, more knowledge, one hopes, will result in better financial decisions and overall financial well - being. employees who are taking maximum advantage of the benefits available to them will more likely have greater job satisfaction, which may result in lower turnover. for the employer, research studies have shown that employees who are financially healthy are more productive. they are absent less often, spend less time at the workplace dealing with financial crises, and earn higher job performance ratings. we commend the commission for recognizing workplace education as an integral component in formulating a national financial education strategy.

the economy in europe will stimulate demand for swiss exports. we anticipate growth of 1. 5 – 2. 0 % for the current year. dangers of a prolonged low - interest period what do these tentative global economic developments mean for monetary policy? most central banks maintained their very expansionary course and the various unconventional measures. these measures were largely uncontested as long as they served to stabilise financial markets and the banks and subsequently to stimulate the economy. however, the longer the current low interest rate period continues, the greater the associated risks can be. i would now like to talk about two of these risks – the increasing price distortions in various investment categories and the decreasing motivation to undertake structural reform measures. increasing price distortions : the very low interest rates affect aggregate demand in the economy both directly and also via the wealth effect. one of the effects which expansionary monetary policy abroad encourages is the quest for yield and, with it, the transfer of assets into more risky investments. however, low interest rates can result in misallocation on financial markets, particularly when they persist for a long period of time. it is possible that bis central bankers ’ speeches risks may be misjudged and, as a result, relative prices distorted. it is naturally difficult to establish the point at which price movements of this kind need to be considered as excesses. in the past, long periods of rising prices were always followed by corrections. the hefty reaction of risk markets to the tapering debate can be read as a sign of the instability of certain asset prices. in switzerland, for instance, the low interest rates have stimulated activity in the mortgage and real estate markets, where, for a number of years now, we have seen considerable momentum which can only be partially explained by movements in fundamental factors. as a result, imbalances have built up. for example, mortgage volumes have grown significantly faster than gdp for many years, as can be seen in chart 9. the snb has issued repeated warnings about the risks for financial stability associated with these developments. this is the background to the federal council ’ s activation of the countercyclical capital buffer ( ccb ) at the beginning of this year, upon the proposal of the snb. the ccb has been in force since the end of september and its primary aim is to increase the resilience of the banking system against these risks and to combat excessive credit growth. since low interest rates can be expected to persist