trend in recent years, being below the long - term average, with corporate profits staying at high levels. meanwhile, a variety of indicators for the labor market - - such as the unemployment rate, the active job openings - to - applicants ratio, and the diffusion index ( di ) for employment conditions in the tankan ( short - term economic survey of enterprises in japan ) - - suggest that the labor market conditions have tightened. thus, the conditions for wage increases largely have been met. wages are labor costs for individual firms. from the macroeconomic viewpoint, however, they are employee income, which is the source of households'purchasing power. as wages and employee income rise on a sustainable basis, private consumption will be firmer. with regard to business activity, japan's exports and production have increased recently, on the back of recovery in demand from emerging economies that i've mentioned. by taking account of these improvements, the bank has made an upward revision to its assessment of economic conditions at the latest monetary policy meeting ( mpm ) for the first time in a while. in sum, japan's economy had struggled against the headwinds of the global economy. as the global economy is entering a new phase, japan's economy is now able to move further forward, supported by the tailwind. iv. challenges facing japan's economy : looking ahead to 2017 lastly, i would like to touch on challenges facing japan's economy, looking ahead to next year. as i have explained today, the global economy is entering a new phase. with the tailwind of the global economy, good business opportunities are arising. in this situation, it is imperative to get ahead of your rivals both at home and abroad. fortunately, advanced technology, including that related to iot ( internet of things ), ai ( artificial intelligence ), and big data, will become available for commercial use in a wide range of areas, facilitating new types of products and services. it is understandable that many people still have pessimistic views on the future of japan's economy from a longer - term perspective after a long period of deflation and low growth. however, it is you in business management who can discover new growth opportunities in any situation. joseph a. schumpeter, an economist who emphasized the role of firms'innovation as the fundamental element of economic growth, presents the following statement in his well - known work, the theory of economic development. [ i ] nnovations

ida wolden bache : norges bank's management of the government pension fund global introductory statement by ms ida wolden bache, governor of norges bank ( central bank of norway ), at the hearing of the standing committee on finance and economic affairs of the storting ( norwegian parliament ), oslo, 18 april 2023. * * * thank you for the invitation and for the opportunity to talk about norges bank's management of the government pension fund global. 2022 saw substantial movements in global financial markets. interest rates rose, and both equity and bond markets gave negative returns. the fund's return last year was equivalent to a drop in value of nok 1 637 billion. in absolute terms, this is the weakest return in the fund's history. with such a large fund and an equity allocation of 70 percent, we need to be prepared for substantial fluctuations in returns the objective for norges bank's management of the fund is the highest possible longterm return within the constraints set by the ministry of finance. the ministry has defined a benchmark index for the fund, and we manage the fund close to this index. over time, the return on the fund has been higher than the return on the benchmark index. the executive board is satisfied with this. the excess return in 2022 was equivalent to nok 117 billion. the executive board has overriding responsibility for norges bank's management of the fund. we adopted a new strategy for the management of the fund towards the end of 2022. i would like to single out three key aspects of this strategy. we will emphasise exploiting the bank's characteristics as a large and long - term investor in order to achieve the objective of the highest possible return. norges bank is able to make investments whose underlying value may take a long time to realise. a long - term investment horizon also means that we can invest differently to many other investors, even in difficult and illiquid markets. the fund's size enables us to explore new ways of investing at little additional cost. as a large, active and long - term participant in capital markets, the bank is an attractive investor and partner. in unlisted markets, this may open up opportunities unavailable to others. we will set great store by being a responsible investor. responsible investment and active ownership support the objective of the highest possible return. transparency about this work is important, and we expanded our reporting in this area in