across the euro area. to sum up, a cross - check of the outcome of the economic analysis with the signals coming from the monetary analysis indicates the need to firmly implement the governing council ’ s monetary policy decisions and to monitor closely all relevant incoming information as concerns their impact on the medium - term outlook for price stability. bis central bankers ’ speeches monetary policy is focused on maintaining price stability over the medium term and its accommodative stance contributes to supporting economic activity. however, in order to reap the full benefits from our monetary policy measures, other policy areas must contribute decisively. given continued high structural unemployment and low potential output growth in the euro area, the ongoing cyclical recovery should be supported by effective structural policies. further product and labour market reforms, and particularly actions to improve the business environment, including an adequate public infrastructure, are vital to increase productive investment, boost job creation and raise productivity. the swift and effective implementation of these reforms, in an environment of accommodative monetary policy, will not only lead to higher sustainable economic growth in the euro area but will also raise expectations of permanently higher incomes and accelerate the benefits of reforms, thereby making the euro area more resilient to global shocks. fiscal policies should support the economic recovery while remaining in compliance with the stability and growth pact. full and consistent implementation of the pact is crucial for confidence in our fiscal framework. we are now at your disposal for questions. bis central bankers ’ speeches

t be here tonight if i hadn ’ t planned to use this opportunity to make at least some publicity for the public sector. working in the public sector working in the public sector – and by this i mean : ministries of economy and finance, statistical institutes, international organisations such as the imf, world bank and other development banks, oecd, and central banks such as the us federal reserve or the european central bank – is probably as close as it gets to applied economics. it is literally about taking the models, tools and methods that you learn at class to help design public policies. a considerable fraction of that work then ends up being published as new research. so there is a virtuous feedback loop between academia and public sector institutions. say ’ s law of markets doesn ’ t necessarily apply to the market for ideas. supply creates its own demand, but demand also creates its own supply. economists at the ecb, for example, have collectively published more than 2, 300 working papers over the past 20 years – an average of ten papers per month. strictly speaking, the vast majority of these economists are not research economists. they are not paid to write papers. they analyse the labour market or price developments, or they design monetary policy instruments. so, to all intents and purposes, their daily work is research. the ecb is not the odd one out in this respect. other public organisations work along exactly the same lines. their collective research has a considerable impact on economics as a science. for many economists, it is this intellectual curiosity, this ability and opportunity to push out the frontier of innovation that makes institutions like the ecb such an attractive place to work. the us anthropologist, david graeber, has claimed that some 40 % of workers secretly believe that their jobs need not, or should not, exist. i have a strong sense that this number is considerably smaller for public sector economists. but i cannot prove it. what i can prove to you, however, is the relevance of what you learn here at pse for the work in an organisation like the ecb. central banks as workplace monetary policy is a branch of the economics profession that has particularly close ties to your master ’ s curriculum. richard clarida, jordi gali and mark gertler famously dissected “ the science of monetary policy ”, even though many central bankers would also call monetary policy an art. macroeconomic models underpin almost all of our work at the ecb