speech the changing nature of investment philip lowe [ * ] governor address to the australian financial review business summit sydney – 7 march 2018 thank you for the invitation to speak at this year's afr business summit. it is very good to be here. the underlying question being asked at this summit is : how does australian business prosper in today's changing world? this is an important question to be asking. a strong and prosperous business sector is central to australia's economic success. it is businesses – both small and large – that employ the bulk of australians. it is businesses that have to compete globally and find new markets around the world for the goods and services that we produce here in australia. and it is businesses that are responsible for most of the investment spending in the country. so it is in our collective interest to have a prosperous business sector. this morning i would like to talk about the importance of investment in helping deliver that prosperity. it is through investment that firms develop new products, find better ways of doing things and expand their productive capacity. this means that the investment climate and the level and nature of investment have an important bearing on our future prosperity. my remarks will be in three parts. first, i will focus on recent cyclical developments in non - mining investment, including the recent lift in investment. second, i will discuss some structural changes in the nature of investment in the australian economy, including the increasing importance of investment in technology and knowledge - based capital. i will finish with some remarks about the investment climate and the role the rba can play. recent trends over the past decade or so, the resources sector has been the dominant investment story in australia. this investment has greatly expanded productive capacity in the resources sector, and this is flowing into increased exports. this story is well known so i will not go over it again today. instead my focus is on non - mining investment. during the mining investment boom it was understandable that investment in the rest of the economy was subdued. but as the boom unwound, the pick - up in non - mining business investment was slow to come. for a few years, a common theme in commentary from the rba was that nonmining investment was weaker than we had been expecting. indeed, for six or seven years the level of non - mining investment did not change very much ( graph 1 ). during this period, the rba highlighted high hurdle rates of return and a lack of animal spirits. and the businesses we

mohammed laksaci : impact of the oil price decline on the algerian banking system keynote address by mr mohammed laksaci, governor of the bank of algeria, at a meeting with bank executives, algiers, 26 april 2016. * * * i would first like to point out that in terms of external shocks, the algerian economy, which is closely linked to hydrocarbon sector resources, has particularly suffered from the shock inherent to the sharp and sustained fall in world oil prices. it is therefore from this perspective that i start my presentation. i shall talk first of the macroeconomic implications of this external shock, before outlining its impacts from the perspective of financial stability, in light of the new challenges for the banking system in the financing of non - hydrocarbon growth. 1. macro - economic stance economic and financial performance during 2001 - 2008, particularly the significantly improved external financial position and a substantial accumulation of budget savings, enabled the algerian economy to demonstrate resilience in the face of the severe external shock in 2009 inherent to the intensification of the international economic and financial crisis. following the strengthening of the external financial position over 2010 - 2013, algeria continued to preserve monetary and financial stability during 2014, in a context of persistent fiscal deficit and a return to a balance of payments deficit. the impact of the oil price decline on the algerian economy can be examined through the main recent economic and financial developments. first, following the sharp decline of hydrocarbon prices in 2014, the large contraction of hydrocarbon exports in 2015, in a context of still high imports after the significant increase of imports of goods over the period 2007 - 2014, resulted in a high external current account deficit ( - 16. 4 percent of gdp ). with hydrocarbons remaining algeria ’ s main export, the external shock resulted in a significant contraction in international reserves, from us $ billion 179 in 2014 to us $ billion 144 in 2015. nonetheless, this level remains comfortable, representing 27 months of imports of goods and services, in a situation of historically low medium and long term external debt ( 1. 8 percent of gdp ) and the absence of any external indebtedness of the hydrocarbon sector for more than a decade. second, the exchange rate of the dinar vis - a - vis the us dollar depreciated by 20 percent in 2015, while it depreciated by only 3. 8 percent vis - a - vis the euro. in view of the large depreciation of algeria ’ s main