laws in the world, the digital euro will, of course, comply with all eu rules on data protection. this is essential for the necessary political and societal support. let me wrap up. i started my presentation with a question. ‘ why do we need a central bank digital currency? ’ after what i have just told you, the answer could be summarised as follows : to keep up with society. to pursue strategic autonomy. and to maintain access to public money in a digital world. banknotes belong to all of us. they have stood the test of time, and – if you ask me – will continue to do so. and as we prepare them for what lies ahead, we will keep an eye on financial stability risks and leave it to politics to decide. we will not venture into a vacuum. the digital euro will not exist in isolation, but will take its place in an integrated european payments landscape. © dnb & shutterstock and with this conclusion, i find myself paying tribute to our host ’ s – the european houseambrosetti ’ s – tagline. this tagline says : ‘ proud of our past. propelled towards the future. ’ well, let that be exactly how i feel about our european currency. thank you.

than in the past. this is because the transmission channels of shocks, such as fdi and trade flows, have increased over time and will probably continue to do so. however, this is not to say that we should aim at reducing these international linkages. let me elaborate on this. first, one should not forget that international trade and other linkages may transmit economic disturbances, but have beneficial effects as well. fdi has become an important mechanism for the transfer of technology, including management techniques. in this way, fdi supports a smooth adoption of technologies that can make an economy less vulnerable to cyclical factors. for example, scale economies may drive multinational firms to apply state - of - the - art ict - technology or management models in different countries. i will not conceal that there also have been mistakes in this respect there have been clear cases of overinvestment during the global boom in mergers and acquisitions. however, there is reliable empirical evidence that technology transfers through fdi have stimulated the rate of technological progress. second, the negative effect of international shocks may be kept in check by ongoing improvements in the resilience of the financial sector. this month, the imf reported ( in its weo ) that the global financial system is in its strongest shape over the past three years. finally, there are structural changes in the economy that indicate that firms are becoming more flexible and are less affected by cyclical developments. let me illustrate this by focussing on the dutch economy ; however, similar developments have been found for the us economy. a remarkable development can be observed in the sectoral pattern of employment changes. more than before, sectors or industries may be denoted as either structurally shrinking or structurally growing ; independent of the state of the business cycle. less than before, industries that shrink in a downturn can expect to grow again in the next upturn of the cycle. consequently, employees are made redundant in sectors which are subject to structural shrinking, and must find new jobs in growth sectors. during the 1995 - 2002 cycle, these sectors accounted for 96 % of employment, as compared to 71 % during the 1987 - 1994 cycle. this changing pattern of sectoral employment indicates that labour and product markets have become more dynamic and flexible. a flexible labour market is conducive to labour productivity growth in the long term. moreover, the ongoing changes in the sectoral composition of employment indicate that companies are forced to carry out ongoing restructuring, for example, as a result of increasing competition and