. over the next two days, fifteen prominent scholars from eleven countries will present their work on different institutional or national experiences in the inter - war years ; i thank them for being here and look forward to listening to their contributions. i would also like to thank the centre for culture, research and documentation of the bank of 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches greece, and its director, mr. panagiotis panagakis. our economic historian and scientific advisor to the historical archive, mr. andreas kakridis, who is the heart and soul of the conference. the staff at my office, our valuable communication section, the security officers, as well as numerous other colleagues at the bank of greece, without whom this conference would not be possible. the bank of greece is committed to promoting historical research, particularly research in economic history. yet the past is most interesting when it informs our understanding of the present and future. policy reactions to the recent financial crisis were shaped by perceptions – and often misperceptions – of the past, particularly the inter - war years. in this context, i am also pleased to welcome several of my esteemed colleagues from other european central banks, who are joining us for this conference. their presence honours us and underlines the connection to the present and future of central banking. we will have much more time to talk about this later today, during our panel discussion. but first, let us turn our gaze to the past and start our journey through the inter - war years. i wish everyone a fruitful conference and look forward to stimulating discussions! 1 page 8 of memorandum by η. finlayson, relations between the state and the central bank of issue, dated 10. 10. 1928, as found in the bank of england archive, niemeyer papers, ov9 - 206 / 2. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

- crash in wall street ), tensions in foreign exchange markets and broader geopolitical factors. 5. major challenges looking forward : putting the economy on a sustainable growth path as a result of the painful economic adjustment over the past eight years, macroeconomic flow disequilibria have now been eliminated and reforms have contributed to a substantial improvement of competitiveness. hence, this is a good starting point for the greek economy to embark on a sustainable growth trajectory. however, stock disequilibria — such as the high public debt, the high burden of npls and high unemployment — persist or have even increased during the years of the crisis, acting as a drag on long - term growth. furthermore, a large number of legislated reforms need to be fully implemented and the fiscal policy mix is not supportive of growth. the high level of public debt reduces long - term growth prospects because it increases the cost of capital and generates expectations that future taxes will remain high in order for the sovereign to service the debt, lowering investment. high npls in banks ’ balance sheets reduce the ability of the banking system to provide credit to healthy firms because capital is trapped in non - viable 3 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches firms. high long - term unemployment leads to depletion of human capital whereas the collapse in investment has contributed to a decline in the stock of productive capital with negative consequences for long - term productivity growth. in order to address the abovementioned challenges the focus of economic policy should be on the following : 1. addressing the public debt overhang. decisive and concrete actions are needed to ensure the sustainability of greek public debt, on the basis of the eurogroup ’ s decision of june 2017. the bank of greece has put forward a mild debt re - profiling proposal, which entails only a negligible cost for our partners and provides for, among other things, extending the weighted average maturity of interest payments on efsf loans by at least 8. 5 years. this, along with a long - term commitment to structural reforms, could bring greek debt back to a sustainable level in gross financing needs terms, allowing for a smooth return of the country to the international capital markets. 2. implementing the remaining reforms and improving the quality of institutions. academic research on the drivers of long - run growth shows that well - functioning institutions, high regulatory quality and good governance matter for economic growth and enable countries to over - perform in the long run2. this is because institutions and