are much better equipped to manage this type of situation today than when i first started at the riksbank. both we and others have learnt a lot along the way, remedied various deficiencies and tried to create something that works better. of course, this process is never at an end, but i can nevertheless note that we have come a long way. as i now hold my final speech as member of the executive board, i would like to take this opportunity to give my own perspective on parts of this journey, on the challenges we have faced and on what may lie ahead of us. an organisation that is constantly developing a lot has changed since my first day at work in 1976, not only outside of, but also inside of the riksbank ’ s walls. my workplace of the 1970s in practice has little more in common with today ’ s riksbank than the building itself. it is quite simply a different world. credibility and better conditions today economic policy has a different credibility, and also the tools needed to deal with shocks to the economy in a flexible way. a long development process lies behind this much better starting point with " greater room for manoeuvre ”. something that has been a decisive factor is the changes in the economic policy framework made following the crisis at the beginning of the 1990s. sweden was then forced to get to grips with many problems that had been around for a long time. there was also broad support, not least from politicians, behind the demands for change. both monetary and fiscal policy were transformed and with good results. the inflation target for monetary policy, the fact that the riksbank now has statutory independence and the fact that we now have sound public finances, a budget ceiling and balance targets for fiscal policy – all of this has contributed to much greater stability in the economy than we had in the 1970s and 1980s. the current regulations mean that economic policy as a whole can never seriously clash with the monetary policy target in the way it actually sometimes did during the period with a fixed exchange rate regime. both public authorities and banks also learned a lot about financial stability during the crisis in the 1990s. the riksbank now has an organisation that continuously analyses the stability of the financial system and maintains a preparedness to act in a potential crisis situation. this gives us the opportunity to detect and counteract at any early stage any changes and vulnerabilities that could lead to a serious crisis. it also makes it easier to manage the problems if a crisis

on equality. this effect is not easy to calculate, but it is an important channel. • when attaining an inflation target, this normally goes hand in hand with an economy avoiding too much of booms and busts in the business cycle and less swings in unemployment. less uncertainty over economic developments and economic policy is good for investment, and hence for growth and labour market outcomes. so, labour market developments are important for income equality. • in recent years, in order to meet their price stability targets, many central banks have pursued a very expansionary policy, including low or even negative policy rates, as well as purchase programmes of securities. these policies have attracted criticism, saying they increase inequality, but i disagree. • given the weak trend in growth in many countries, a less expansionary monetary policy than pursued during recent years would have led to higher unemployment than was the case. in that sense, monetary policy could be argued to have contributed to lower income inequalities, as unemployment could lead to large negative effects on household income. many of those households, who would have experienced unemployment, would then have fallen to lower income deciles, contributing to higher income dispersion. most studies that include the labour market effect come to the conclusion that the overall effect of expansionary monetary see deutsche bundesbank ( 2016 ). 2 see deutsche bundesbank ( 2016 ). 2 policy on inequality is that it slightly decreases it. or in short, the dampening effect of lower unemployment offsets the effects from higher share prices. but the overall effect seems, if any, to be small. • to sum up, the very expansionary monetary policy conducted during recent years in some countries could be argued to have had a positive net effect, albeit small, on equality. the positive employment effect normally seems to dominate over the negative effects 3. • we at the riksbank don ’ t per se take equality into consideration when taking monetary policy decisions. it is not part of our mandate. this is more effectively done by fiscal policy. i don ’ t believe any other central bank specifically takes this into account either. • but going forward, the swedish parliamentary committee on finance has asked the riksbank to evaluate the distributional effects of the expansionary monetary policy in recent years. so this is an area we are working on now and will continue to do so. • as the theme of this conference is “ reshaping globalisation ” i would like to end by adding some words about my