the governor ’ s concluding remarks financial year 127th financial year annual report rome, 31 may 2021 th the governor ’ s concluding remarks annual report 2020 - 127th financial year rome, 31 may 2021 ladies and gentlemen, the pandemic has had a very high cost in terms of human lives the world over. keeping it under control has called for restrictions on individual freedoms and has deeply affected all of our lives. many people have lost their jobs ; our interpersonal relationships and the ways in which we study, produce and work, and spend our free time have changed. from an economic perspective, the ensuing recession is the worst since the end of the second world war. in 2020, global gdp declined by 3. 3 per cent, with uneven effects across the various geographical areas, productive sectors, firms, and households. there was an even greater decline, of almost 9 per cent, in world trade, characterized by the temporary halt of production chains and a sharp fall in tourism flows. job losses hit young people, women and temporary workers the hardest. for the first time in over twenty years, it is estimated that the number of people living in extreme poverty has begun to climb again, today accounting for about 10 per cent of the population according to the world bank, with an increase of more than 100 million people in the last year. without the decisive and rapid economic policy responses, the damage would have been more serious. cooperation between countries and coordination among the monetary and fiscal authorities marked a clear change of direction compared with the recent past. by last march, governments had approved spending increases, tax reductions and loan guarantees, valued at more than $ 16 trillion, equivalent to 15 per cent of global gdp, with the immediate objective of strengthening health systems and supporting household income and credit to firms. the prompt provision and exceptional quantity of liquidity provided by the central banks staved off tensions in the markets and restored broadly accommodative financial conditions. the measures enacted prevented a generalized tightening of credit, thus averting the risk of a spiralling crisis. thanks to the extraordinary efforts made, first and foremost by the scientific community, to develop vaccines and treatments for the virus, many countries are gradually nearing the end of the health emergency. the effectiveness of the vaccination campaigns that began at the end of 2020 and the still very accommodative economic policies led the international monetary fund to revise its global growth estimates for this year upwards in april, to 6 per cent ( figure 1 ).

anna maria tarantola : women nurturing sustainable development remarks by ms anna maria tarantola, deputy director general of the bank of italy, at the 58th world forum for women entrepreneurs ( femmes chefs d ’ entreprises mondiales – fcem ) world congress, florence, 22 october 2010. * * * i would like to thank the president of aidda, laura frati gucci, for inviting me to the 58th fcem world congress in this conference entitled “ how women face the new economy and ecology ”. the goal of the conference, to assess women ’ s contribution in balancing economic growth and natural resource conservation, is both topical and challenging. this is not the first time i find myself considering human - ecosystem interaction : natural resources are a fundamental input for production and consumption ; the environment is the receptacle for the waste generated by these processes. 1 the fundamental question we must address today is how to increase and spread wealth and wellbeing while respecting and protecting the environment. the role of women is central. throughout history, women and nature have been closely linked : in ayurvedic philosophy, prakriti – nature – is symbolized by a woman ; similarly, the idea of “ mother earth ” is common to many indo - european cultures. perhaps it is no accident that so many of those who have contributed to raising our environmental consciousness have been – and are – women. let me mention four of these outstanding women. the biologist rachel carlson was the first to study the harmful effects of ddt in the early nineteen - sixties. she can be considered the founder of the modern environmental movement. she was a scientist who stood behind her findings despite fierce attacks from the chemical industry lobby. 2 the environmental scientist donella meadows co - authored the book limits to growth 3 which laid the foundations for an analysis of the earth ’ s limited capacity to support economic and demographic growth. this report was criticized – in particular by economists 4 – but without doubt it had a profound impact on the analytical method used to study environmental problems. meadows used computer technology to apply the theory of complex systems to the economic analysis of the reciprocal effects of growth and the environment ; this is now the standard method to analyse the economic effects of climate change ( integrated assessment modelling ). the nobel peace prize winner wangari maathai, an activist and founder of the environmental movement green belt, contributed importantly to the reforestation of vast areas of kenya. 5 reforestation not only