be pursued consistently. this is so despite the – perhaps understandable – regulation fatigue that may be gaining ground. the tasks are different depending on the situation in each country or region. in the euro area, the key priority now is completing the banking union with common deposit insurance and by strengthening the european stability mechanism. meanwhile, the us and the uk should protect their regulatory achievements. it would be a big mistake to roll back what was achieved in the post - crisis years. this links to the management of monetary policy normalization, which is a balancing act, where the right course should depend on the particular circumstances of each currency area. this is the logic of the international system of floating exchange rates. however, monetary policy has international repercussions, the severity of which depends on the existing vulnerabilities of the countries that face these spillovers. as a consequence, many emerging market economies need to pay more attention to 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches developing macroprudential policies which could limit their particular vulnerabilities. having a large share of foreign currency denominated lending in the domestic market is an obvious example of such vulnerability, which has repeatedly caused serious problems in the past. weak balance sheets in the business sector are a vulnerability even in countries with no current account deficits. 3. a critical issue related to financial resilience is the question how to ensure that the monetary policy toolbox is sufficient when the next recession hits. having sufficient room of manoeuvre for active monetary policy is part of the resilience of the new equilibrium that we strive for. the problem is quite relevant because there are indications that the so - called natural rate of interest ( the medium - term equilibrium real rate of interest ) may have declined in the recent years, and may be clearly below what was thought to be normal in the past. this has several implications. where the convergence to sustainable price stability still requires significant monetary stimulus, as is the case in the euro area, this calls for prudence and for a gradual approach to monetary policy normalisation. in my view it is reasonable to assume that the unconventional monetary policy measures and instruments which were used during the crisis years ( and the ecb, for one, is still using ) will stay permanently in the toolbox, at least in reserve. 4. finally, i think that the word ’ normalization ’ as a description of the monetary policy outlook in the advanced economies is actually misleading, as it suggests a return to

productivity ”. see g. bascand ( 2012 ), “ planning for the future : structural change in new zealand ’ s population, labour force, and productivity ”, government statistician, statistics new zealand, paper presented at affording our future conference, wellington, nz, december 2012. bis central bankers ’ speeches shortages – albeit over a fifty year horizon. in contrast, labour supply has been growing very rapidly, with cyclical forces dominating the longer - term lower trend. participation the share of the population participating in the labour force, either by working or actively seeking work, has trended higher over the past 15 years, reaching around 69 percent in 2015. the main influences on this trend have been the ageing population, increased participation of older workers, and increased participation of women ( figure 3 ). figure 3 : contributions to change in labour force participation since 20019 as in many advanced economies, our population is ageing. because older cohorts, and particularly those past retirement age, have a lower participation rate than the rest of the working - age population, an increase in the proportion of older cohorts, all else equal, decreases the aggregate participation rate. we ’ ve also experienced a significant increase in the participation of older workers, due to improved health and changes to retirement policies that encourage people to remain in the workforce for longer. the participation rate of the over - 60s has increased from 14 percent in 2001, to 35 percent currently. this greater participation of older workers has exceeded the negative impact of the ageing population. over the past 15 years, the participation rate of females has trended upwards, as social and cultural factors are seeing more women enter the workforce across all age groups. by contrast, the participation rate of men has been broadly stable. participation can be cyclical because strong employment and wage growth encourage people to seek work, who otherwise would not choose to participate. similarly, during downturns when unemployment rises and people spend longer time out of work, some are the chart shows the percentage point change in the participation rate since the march 2001 quarter attributable to each of the factors. the contribution from demographic change is calculated by holding the average participation rate of each age cohort fixed, and varying the relative size of each cohort. the contribution from youth participation is calculated by multiplying the change in the participation rate of male 15 – 19 year olds by the share of both sexes in that age cohort in the working age population in 2001.