fundamental causes of lower economic growth in order to eradicate them and foster a return to the secular growth path. finally, mexico will continue to make progress as long as it focuses on a clear, long - term vision that does not give preference to short - lived benefits which could have excessive costs in the future, and implements policies aimed at promoting long - term economic growth. bis central bankers ’ speeches

policies might be having the unintended consequences of limiting the necessary adjustments needed to resume a more vigorous economic recovery ; for example, the fall in real estate prices towards new equilibrium or the recognition of low - quality mortgage loans by financial institutions. another possibility is that greater government intervention and uncertainty on future economic policies could be leading to an adverse business environment. some lessons for mexico the relatively limited effect of the global financial crisis on mexico – due mainly to the minimum exposure of financial intermediaries to toxic foreign assets – allowed banks to avoid losses, financial markets to avoid interruption of their operations and, thus precluded the need for banco de mexico to consider expanding its balance sheet for liquidity purposes. additionally, the ongoing process of convergence to the inflation target limited the reduction in interest rates implemented, and taking the adoption of unconventional monetary policies in mexico off the table. on the other hand, the limited countercyclical fiscal policy that affected only moderately public debt during the crisis gave certainty to the economy. in retrospect, these actions seem to have been adequate as they allowed the economy to absorb the impact of the external shock without compromising the government ’ s future decisions. the experience from industrialized nations reveals that the emergency measures to supply liquidity were necessary during the crisis although it would certainly have been preferable to have had better financial rules and supervision to prevent such a crisis. also, the impact that an extraordinarily lax monetary policy could be having on output is still unclear, and the exit strategies will probably be complex. on another front, an expansionary fiscal policy that puts the stability of public debt at risk in the future requires significant correction, which will generate a possible adverse effect on economic activity. bis central bankers ’ speeches final comments during the global crisis, monetary policy expanded to supply the required liquidity and maintain the functioning of markets. in terms of “ moral hazard ”, the costs generated by central banks ’ intervention are probably lower than those that would have emerged with no intervention, at least in the short term. nevertheless, the favorable impact that quantitative easing has had on those economies is less clear. the costs are unknown because the growth of central bank balance sheets has been unprecedented and their adjustment to prevent future inflationary pressures might be difficult. the option of higher inflation proposed by some analysts minimizes significant costs, and that of further fiscal stimulus seems limited given the need to consolidate the weak public finances of advanced economies. the alternative that seems more promising is that of identifying the possible