bodil nyboe andersen : recent economic developments in denmark speech by mrs bodil nyboe andersen, governor of the national bank of denmark, at the annual meeting of the association of danish mortgage banks, copenhagen, 29 april 2004. * * the danish economy has shown very positive trends in the last decades even though economic growth has been modest recently. various governments have implemented a number of structural reforms since the beginning of the 1980s. as a result, the danish economy is today extremely robust with strong economic fundamentals. the fixed - exchange - rate policy, which was introduced in 1982, has been a cornerstone of this development. however, a sustainable and credible fixed - exchange - rate policy requires that the rest of the economic policy and the structural conditions are in order. in denmark this called for a number of economic reforms that began in the 1980s. the cost - of - living adjustment was abolished and the central - government finances improved. the deductibility of interest payments was restricted and interest taxation reduced. all of these factors contributed to breaking expectations of a devaluation - inflation spiral. however, breaking these expectations took its toll and, as many people in the financial sector may still recall, the years around 1990 were lean years for denmark. on the other hand, these measures resolved some of the structural problems that had burdened the danish economy for many years. since the beginning of the 1990s denmark has seen stable growth with declining inflation, lower interest rates and the accumulation of solid surpluses on both public finances and the balance of payments, as well as gradual expansion of pension savings. in recent years denmark has seen strong growth in real wages, and at the same time danish companies have successfully carried out rationalisation measures. even though unemployment has been increasing for a period of time, unemployment has been low on a european scale in the last 5 - 10 years. this indicates that the structural reforms already implemented in the labour market have contributed to enhancing the flexibility of the danish economy. in international assessments and comparisons it is noted that denmark has successfully applied a long - term and medium - term orientation to its economic policy without resorting to short - term fiscal - policy measures. most recently, the imf delegation that visited denmark in march this year described this as follows in their conclusions : “ at the same time, denmark has been well - served by focusing on medium term fiscal targets, and relying on large automatic stabilizers to support demand during downturns. discretionary counter - cyclical policy

negative interest rates have just been a continuation of low interest rates. slide 6 : denmark is an ecb copycat today, nearly three years after the massive inflow of currency, it is clear for most people that denmark is not swiss national bank copycats – we are ecb copycats. if the danish central bank again should be in a situation where highly targeted communication becomes necessary we will consider various options and use whatever it takes to get the message out. side 3 af 4 slide 7 : target groups for the communication nowadays our communication is not only targeting people in the financial markets. we have started a journey on which we aim to communicate much broader and wish to reach all danes in an effort to pave the way for their understanding of why there is a central bank and what we are doing. we are not publishing traditional quarterly review anymore. the publication has been cut into slices and is now released on an ongoing basis. we are now working with five different target groups : the professionals, the public servants, the academic community, the journalist and the politician. publications are edited and targeted to audience groups. next step is the public and we expect to use the 200 anniversary of the danish central bank next year to reach out to the danes. we have so far received positive response to the new strategy. are we going to see a central - bank governor using twitter or facebook to announce personal and professional matters? i'm not able to answer that question. what i know is, that danmarks nationalbank will use all appropriate communication channels but from my point of view too much information could devaluate the message. communication is a powerful tool but it should be used in a clever way and with caution. thank you for your attention! side 4 af 4 danmarks nationalbank central bank communications conference lars rohde, chairman of the board of governors, 15 november 2017 never explain – never apologize governor montagu norman bank of england ( 1920 - 1944 ) sharp increase in foreign exchange reserves in 2015 snb abandon the floor of the swiss franc can he make it? heads or tails? denmark is an ecb copycat note : key policy rates. target groups for the communication danmarks nationalbank thank you