by international comparison, despite the fact that national savings is not low, as we showed in the bank of israel annual report for 2016. therefore, not only are we not close the gap in capital per worker relative to other economies, the gap is even growing. by the way, the investments that increased in 2016 were mainly in residential construction and in the electronic components industry, but not in the other industries, such that the increase in investments made a relatively small contribution to a broad increase in production capacity. a factor that is complementary to private sector investment is government investment in infrastructure. despite some increase in the past two years, the level of this 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches investment remains lower than it was at the beginning of the decade. as a result, the stock of capital in the economy is lower than the average in the other advanced economies. exports as a share of gdp also declined in recent years, affected by the weakness in world trade and the strengthening of the shekel. this fact is not harbinger of good news in terms of the dynamics of productivity. in this context, we can examine what happened to labor productivity in israel over time. despite its low level at the point of departure in 1995, its pace of growth was lower than what could have been expected given the fact that in general, the increase in productivity is greater in economies that begin from a lower point, if only because of their ability to adopt technologies that exist in countries at the technological forefront. the fact that the productivity gap has not been closed is particularly disappointing given that growth in productivity in the other advanced economies has also been relatively low in recent years. other than the composition of growth and the insufficient level of infrastructure, i have discussed other reasons for the low level of productivity at various opportunities. the main reasons are unsuitable human capital, as shown by the piaac tests examining the cognitive skills of the adult population in israel — such as problem solving skills in a digital environment — the problem of excessive and inefficient bureaucracy, and the fact that the economy is not sufficiently open to international competition in various aspects, such as the attitude toward competitive supply from abroad or relatively high non - tariff barriers. the question of the implications of growth led by consumption over the long term has been discussed by various international entities in recent years, and the main conclusions from their studies are similar to the analysis we have conducted. such growth tends to be weaker, and it also generally leads to lower future growth. the reason for

bodil nyboe andersen : recent financial and economic developments in denmark speech by mrs bodil nyboe andersen, governor of the national bank of denmark, at the annual meeting of the association of danish bankers ’ association, copenhagen, 4 december 2002. * * * virtually every report and article on the international economic development nowadays starts by describing the unusually high degree of uncertainty. not only has the expected upswing been deferred once again for another year, but it has also become more common to hear expressions of concern for the economy's course in both the usa and europe. the terms recession, depression and deflation make frequent appearances in the headlines, and are often used interchangeably to describe the fact that things are not going as well as we were accustomed to up to 2000. economists apply these three terms to describe different concepts : • recession is the least serious situation. a rule of thumb says that a drop in output for two quarters running is a “ technical recession ”. in the usa, the national bureau for economic research operates with a more sophisticated definition of recession, based on the development in a number of macroeconomic time series. according to this definition, the bureau noted a year ago that the usa went into a recession in march 2001. whether this recession is persistent or has now ceased will not be revealed until the figures have been revised and closely analysed, with a timelag of many months, and perhaps more than one year. • depression is a prolonged period of abnormally low growth and high unemployment. so this is a far more serious situation than recession. the term depression is used in particular to describe the persistent economic crisis in the 1930s. • deflation signifies a drop in the general price level, i. e. the opposite of inflation. a situation with falling prices is dangerous, since it tends to have a self - reinforcing tendency. if sustained price drops are expected, purchases and investments will be postponed, and this in itself will deepen the crisis. the confusion regarding these terms is exacerbated by the fact that “ deflationary ” is sometimes used merely to describe a tendency for the economy to dampen. lower growth is not necessarily a major problem, however. after strong growth and pressure on the labour market, a calmer period can be healthy. the challenge here is that not all countries have experienced strong growth with the related reduction of unemployment up to and around the millennium rollover. for many years, japan's economic