##fold. first, i believe that you should encourage honest disclosure from government entities on their degree of preparedness and the general outline of contingency plans that they are making. also, regulators should use the weight of regulatory control to encourage regulated entities to engage in voluntary self - disclosure. if you represent the media, you have a special obligation to engage in balanced and accurate reportage, not attempting to hide important facts, but not seeking the most sensational coverage. a broad synthesis that captures facts, not drama, is probably most useful. finally, all of us as members of the public have an obligation to listen to the most responsible voices. we should recall that in times of uncertainty, many views are expressed ; only the most factually accurate deserve our attention.

necessary analytical framework for thinking about monetary policy. and i venture to say that it matters to policy outcomes what frameworks policymakers use : whether it is, say, the quantity theory of money, the monetarist explanation of inflation, the linear versus non - linear phillips curve, or animal spirits and inflation expectations – just to name a few. my own view, as i implied, is that the natural rate has to be at the heart of modern monetary policy analysis. in recent years, some have argued that r * has risen. spurring this rise, it is argued, are the increase in investment needs due to the green energy transition, and also artificial intelligence and growing defence spending. on the other hand, population ageing and the deterioration in the global division of labour caused by geopolitics could weaken the dynamics of the economy and productivity growth, and thus also negatively affect the pace of investment. this would contribute to keeping real interest rates down. so, the trajectory of r * remains unclear for now – that's why we need to continue and dig deeper. slide 6. hours worked and persons in employment another focus of analysis should be the labour market, not least since it is closely linked to the apparent slowdown in productivity growth. in recent years, euro area employment growth has been robust, and the unemployment rate is at a historical low of 6. 4 %. however, the number of hours worked has increased at a significantly lower rate than the number of people in employment. this means that the euro area labour market – when measured as hours worked – has not developed particularly favourably, and correspondingly, productivity growth looks somewhat better when measured per hour. 4 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches we also need to gain a better understanding of how demographics affect the labour force participation rate and the development of the labour force in the future. during the past few years, we have seen large and exceptional shocks originating from the labour market. in addition to the sharp decrease in average hours that led to an increase in the demand for labour, immigration has increased labour supply and helped to constrain wage pressure. taking these shocks into account makes the developments in the labour market of the past few years look much less mysterious than is often claimed. understanding what happens in the labour market is crucial for understanding wage and inflation dynamics in the future. currently wage increases in the euro area are driven by both compensation for past inflation surprises and still relatively strong labour demand ( from the services sector ).