reason why the swedish economy was hit so badly during the recent international recession, as global trade collapsed. while exports in the euro area and the united states fell by approximately the same amount as in sweden, our higher export share meant a larger impact on the economy. later this vulnerability became a boon for sweden, as the strong upturn in global trade after the crisis benefited sweden more than many other countries due to its high export share. but the recovery was not only led by exports. as i said initially, sweden was well prepared to confront the crisis as public finances were strong, unlike much of the euro area and the united states. in both these regions the budget deficit averaged 2 per cent of gdp in the for a more detailed discussion of the swedish fiscal consolidation see goran persson ( 1996 ), “ the swedish experience in reducing budget deficits and debt ”, economic review, first quarter 1996, federal reserve bank of kansas. bis central bankers ’ speeches 10 years leading up to the recent crisis, while sweden had, on average, a surplus of over 1 per cent ; in line with the surplus target i mentioned previously. strong public finances limit the need for fiscal restraint during and after a crisis. while in other countries the fiscal stimulus needed during the crisis was widespread, in sweden the fiscal stimulus was more targeted to the labour market and to those sectors that were more strongly hit. in addition to this, sweden has had a high level of household saving and a relatively strong increase in disposable incomes in recent years. this combination has also enabled a high rate of growth in private consumption during and after the crisis. all these preconditions were weaker in the united states and the euro area. lastly, sweden does not have the major structural problems that have arisen in the economies of those countries hit by a “ boom - bust ” cycle on the housing market – problems that have been reflected in a substantial weakening of public finances. house prices recovered after a slight turndown in connection with the crisis and are now at a higher level than before the crisis began. while we continue to follow developments in the swedish housing market, structural factors, such as a low level of construction and traditionally low levels of credit losses on swedish mortgages, reduce the likelihood of major price falls in the near future. what have we learnt from the crisis? it would be wrong to focus solely on the factors that explain sweden ’ s relatively strong recovery. there were also a number of vulnerabilities in the swedish institutional

eva srejber : globalisation and the imf speech by ms eva srejber, second deputy governor of the sveriges riksbank, at the social - domocratic student club, stockholm, on 19 september 2000. * * * thank you for the opportunity of coming here to stockholm university and meeting you from the different social - democratic student clubs in stockholm and others among you who have seen posters here at the university. in a week ’ s time, the international monetary fund, imf, will have its annual meetings with the world bank in prague. we will probably see demonstrations at these meetings - in the same way as we saw at the world trade organisation ’ s meeting last winter and at the imf and world bank meetings in washington in april. in a short time, the imf has increasingly become the subject of debate, not least since it is closely associated with the controversial and often hard - to - interpret economic trend called “ globalisation ”. the riksbank has a reason for taking part in this debate. most of you will be aware that one of our tasks is to maintain stable prices. the other main task of the riksbank is to promote financial stability and an efficient payment system and to issue banknotes and coins. as part of this task, we participate in various international organisations which work for financial stability, among other things we are the contact authority for the imf in sweden. this means that we, together with the ministry of finance in the government offices, coordinate and conduct swedish policy in this forum. this evening, i am intending to talk about globalisation - as an opportunity and a challenge. i am going to discuss what the international monetary fund is and the role that it has in an increasingly globalised world. to conclude, i will take up sweden ’ s participation in the imf, and what we can expect from the meetings in prague next week. globalisation and its benefits before commenting on critical remarks often presented on globalisation, let me first begin by noting that prosperity in the world has improved dramatically during the past decades. never before in history has the situation of so many people improved so much so quickly. since the beginning of the 1980s, purchasing power per capita in the world has more than doubled. in the poor developing countries, this has meant that purchasing power correlated gdp per capita has increased by almost 350 %. in the rich industrialised countries, the corresponding growth was 220 %. in certain cases, developments have been particularly