global investment and higher living standards. we can ’ t be sure though : time will tell. but a clear lesson from history is that advances in technology form the backbone upon which higher living standards are built. an obvious question is how to create and seize these opportunities that technology offers. there will be those in the audience better informed than me on how to do this. i do, though, find it hard to escape the conclusion that the starting point must be heavy investment in human capital and the creation of a culture that promotes innovation. a related challenge is dealing with the distributional effects of technological progress. the sheer scale of global markets means that the potential gains to innovators who can tap into these markets can be huge. at the same time, new technologies and globalisation create some losers. at the moment, our societies are struggling in dealing with this tension. we have a strong interest in working out how to manage this better. if we don ’ t do this, 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches technological progress and globalisation could come to be seen as bad things, not the good things they are. that would surely harm prospects for long - run global growth. 3. in australia, it is likely that growth over the next couple of years will be a bit stronger than it has been recently. the pick - up in the global economy is helping us. the return of mining investment to more normal levels is almost complete. monetary policy continues to provide support and surveybased measures of business conditions have improved noticeably. employment growth has also strengthened over recent months. these are all positive developments. we do, though, continue to face some headwinds. households are gradually coming to grips with slower growth in their real incomes. growth in wages is unusually low, average hours worked have declined and the nature of employment is changing. so there is a recalibration of expectations going on. many households are also coming to grips with higher debt levels and, in our largest cities, high housing prices. we need to watch these issues carefully. 4. australia ’ s longer - term prospects remain positive, but we need to keep working to keep them that way. over the past couple of weeks there has been much discussion of australia ’ s record run of 26 years without a technical recession. this is a significant achievement. we have done better than most countries over a long period. but just in case we are inclined to celebrate too much, we should remember that over those 26 years we have

manuel sanchez : monetary policy in time of crisis remarks by mr manuel sanchez, deputy governor of the bank of mexico, at the universidad autonoma de nuevo leon, monterrey, nl, mexico, 26 august 2011. this is a free translation of the original remarks in spanish. * * * it is an honor for me to close the banco de mexico lecture series hosted by the school of economics of the universidad autonoma de nuevo leon. i have a great appreciation for this institution where, during the eighties, i was a professor of many students who today are excellent economists. the purpose of this series of lectures is to explain to students how our central bank fulfills its responsibilities mandated by law in order to improve mexicans ’ well - being. the lectures which today conclude highlighted the implications of our central bank ’ s main goal set by the constitution, which is to pursue the stability of the domestic currency ’ s purchasing power, and of its other complementary goals of promoting both the sound development of the financial system and the adequate functioning of the payment systems. this morning i would like to review the role of monetary policy in an international context and, based on this, frame some lessons for mexico. the central focus of my presentation is that while during the global financial crisis of 2007 – 2008 monetary policy was effective in re - establishing liquidity in the main advanced economies, current economic conditions in those countries reveal problems whose solutions are far beyond the scope of monetary policy. the best option for all countries, including mexico, is to identify the underlying factors that might be hindering long - term growth and tackle them without delay. my comments are entirely my own and do not represent those of banco de mexico. the unusual rebound of the world economy after experiencing a significant contraction, the world economy has been growing since mid2009. nevertheless, as compared with other business cycles, it has been recovering at a weaker pace due to the lower dynamism of advanced economies that were severely affected by the global financial meltdown. it comes as a surprise that the united states, the epicenter of the crisis, has not been improving enough to offset the fall in output observed during the past recession and resume its long - term growth path. indeed, for more than a century, us gdp has followed a trend of annual growth of approximately three percent, which accounts for nearly two percent in per capita terms. however, since 2009, output has remained around nine percent below the level that would have otherwise prevailed due to its trend, representing