glenn stevens : challenges for economic policy address by mr glenn stevens, governor of the reserve bank of australia, to the anika foundation luncheon, supported by australian business economists and macquarie bank, sydney, 28 july 2009. i thank kathryn ford for assistance in preparing this address. the original speech, which contains various links to the documents mentioned, can be found on the reserve bank of australia ’ s website. * * * thank you all for coming today, and thank you to macquarie bank for their financial support, and the australian business economists for their logistical support for today ’ s function. those of you who were here at last year ’ s anika foundation lunch may have noticed that i have selected the same title today. 1 the challenges have changed in nature, but there are no fewer of them. the first part of my remarks will be about the general set of issues confronting policymakers in key economies. they are not about australia, unless specifically noted. i will devote time to australia - specific issues in the second part. global challenges a year ago, the international financial crisis was unfolding, but had not, at that point, spun out of control. the global economy had reached the peak of a long, strong upswing, which had stretched capacity and seen a wide range of raw materials and energy prices reach very high levels. strange as it may now seem in light of subsequent events, a wave of concern about inflation swept financial markets in the middle of last year. many countries were grappling with the lift in oil prices, which were reaching their peak last july. that was starting to reduce growth but also push up the general level of consumer prices in the advanced countries. in many emerging economies, strong growth had pushed up inflation significantly, even apart from food and energy prices. australia was experiencing high inflation too, a result of the expansionary impact of a oncein - fifty - years terms - of - trade rise in an economy already close to full employment. we were also being affected by the dampening forces of the financial events, though by less than countries whose banks were closely involved in the problem lending areas. since then, inflation rates have trended down in most countries. one thing that helped this was that the rapid final lift in oil prices during the first half of 2008 was reversed by the end of the year. much of the cumulative increase that had occurred over the preceding five years, however, remains in place. broadly parallel trends can be seen in other resource prices. all

irma rosenberg : monetary policy and the swedish economy speech by ms irma rosenberg, deputy governor of sveriges riksbank, to the swedish society of financial analysts, stockholm, 5 march 2003. * * * thank you for the invitation to come here and speak at the swedish society of financial analysts. this is my first public appearance in my new role as deputy governor of the riksbank. it is stimulating to meet people and discuss economic issues. at the same time, i feel a little nervous, as i know i am facing an audience who are used to examining and interpreting statements by the riksbank. one difference between this post and my previous work is that a member of the executive board must to some extent exercise caution when speaking publicly. this is to avoid creating any misunderstandings among participants in the financial market, who try to translate statements by representatives of the central bank into future interest rate policy. this means that some of you may not be acquainted with me, but my aim is to be as honest and clear as i possibly can. what i intend to start talking about today is the development of the economy in recent years and to follow this with a look ahead at the challenges facing both the swedish and international economic climates, and finally say something about monetary policy. those of you who are familiar with the economic assessments i have made know that i sometimes have not shared the riksbank ’ s conclusions. but please remember that this should not be interpreted to mean that i have a different opinion of the riksbank ’ s objectives. i consider it a good thing to conduct an open discussion on the policy pursued. and i hope that you intend to take part in this discussion, as the whole point of an open central bank is to facilitate such discussion and allow it to improve monetary policy. riksbank focuses on total inflation picture i shall begin by describing the way the riksbank works. the riksdag has assigned two main objectives to the riksbank : to maintain price stability and to promote a safe and efficient payment system. today i shall concentrate on the first of these two objectives. the riksbank has defined the target for monetary policy as to limit inflation to 2 per cent, with a tolerated deviation interval of plus / minus one percentage point. this tolerated interval indicates that deviations are likely, but that they will be limited. the objective is worded in terms of the consumer price index ( cpi ), which is a broad index consisting of the prices