miguel fernandez ordonez : the spanish economy after the crisis opening address by mr miguel fernandez ordonez, governor of the bank of spain, at the “ iv conference on the unique features of spanish savings banks ” / federacion de usuarios de las cajas de ahorros ( federation of savings banks customers ), zaragoza, 11 february 2009. * * * thank you mr chairman, the profound worldwide economic slowdown, which in the industrialised countries has already turned into a rapid and sharp recession, is undoubtedly the most serious since the 1929 great depression. in recent months, the collapse of international financial markets has been averted only with great difficulty and we don ’ t yet know what the final consequences of the events unfolding will be for the real economy. faced with this situation, all efforts will inevitably focus on attempting to exit the crisis. internationally, and within spain, hitherto inconceivable measures have been adopted, such as unlimited liquidity injections by central banks, extensive fiscal stimuli and exceptional support to the financial system. naturally enough, governments, politicians, central bankers, supervisors and academics are all contributing to these tasks. and it is not surprising, therefore, that all my speeches in recent months have been to analyse the causes of the global crisis and to review the various measures to tackle it. however, on receiving your much appreciated invitation, i thought i ’ d take advantage of the sense of calm reflection which university fora instil to pause and ponder on what may happen to the spanish economy after the crisis, when the global economy recovers. it is worth reflecting on the aftermath because the global nature of the crisis is " homogenising " the different economies. and by blurring the differences from one economy to another, it is hard to discern the different tasks awaiting them. as the crisis left nobody unscathed, not even those countries which acted prudently, i. e. those that did not incur excessive debt or whose competitiveness did not worsen, are faring better than those which were not so virtuous. but when the crisis ends, differences will re - emerge. when a plane taking off from new york almost crashed last month, the health and well - being of all the passengers hinged on how the crisis was resolved, without this depending on their youth, cholesterol levels, excess weight or the state of their lungs. the drama was the same for everybody. luckily,

addressed. this requires tackling vulnerabilities and increasing the resilience of non - bank financial institutions and market - based finance. in this regard, the esrb has 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches repeatedly noted that a lack of tools is hampering authorities'ability to address financial stability risks beyond the banking sector. it has called for authorities to be provided with such tools, for example, in the context of the review of the prudential rules governing investment funds and insurers. the current heightened risk environment makes this more urgent. against this background, let me now turn to the four distinguished panelists that are together with me today : claudio borio, alfred kammer, lucrezia reichlin and ricardo reis, who are very well known to you in the audience and, therefore, need little presentation. let me, anyway, briefly introduce them to you, by alphabetical order : claudio borio is the head of the monetary and economic department of the bank for international settlements. he has held various positions of responsibility at the bis over the last 35 years and during this period he has authored numerous publications in the fields of monetary policy, banking, finance and issues related to financial stability. alfred kammer is the director of the european department at the international monetary fund. in that capacity, he leads and oversees the imf's work with europe on financial sector surveillance, monetary and macroprudential policies and financial regulation, among other key areas. lucrezia reichlin is professor of economics at the london business school with a background in central banking. she was previously director general of research at the european central bank. last but not least, ricardo reis is the a. w. phillips professor of economics at the london school of economics. widely regarded as one of the top research macroeconomists of his generation, ricardo has published extensively on monetary and fiscal policy, inflation and business cycles. thank you claudio, alfred, lucrezia and ricardo for kindly accepting the invitation to be with us today. as discussed with you, i would first give the floor to alfred. 3 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches