constantinos herodotou : economic trends and outlook for euro area, impact of ecb monetary policy and outlook for cyprus economy keynote address by mr constantinos herodotou, governor of the central bank of cyprus, at the annual cyprus maritime forum, limassol, 7 march 2023. * * * i would like to thank capital link for organizing the annual cyprus maritime forum and for offering me the opportunity to talk about current economic issues. i will discuss inflation developments by contrasting the euro area with the us, in order to give a clearer focus on the dynamics and differences of the economic trends and inflation. i will also talk about the cyprus economy, focusing on the reasons that kept our economy strong and the factors that will help safeguard its future path. overview of international and euro area economic developments let me start with contrasting economic and inflation developments in the us and the euro area. even though both economies were hit by rising inflation, the factors behind it have been different. in the united states, demand factors have been the main determinants of the upward inflation trend, while in the euro area, price increases were, initially, mostly driven by the supply shock caused by the energy crisis. the post - covid demand recovery in the us was faster and stronger than in the euro area. as a result, the federal reserve moved earlier with actions to curb the accelerating inflationary pressures and in particular it started raising interest rates in march 2022. by contrast, the euro area was more exposed to the energy crisis than the us, given its proximity and higher energy dependence to russia and especially russian gas. as long as inflation is largely caused by supply side factors such as energy prices, interest rate hikes cannot address the problem. hence the ecb reacted when the inflation rate in the projected horizon breached its 2 % target and saw signs of infiltration of inflation into demand side factors of the economy. consequently, the ecb started raising interest rates in july 2022. however, it had started normalising its monetary policy much earlier in 2022 by terminating the pepp and app bond purchases. the second main difference relates to the labour market dynamics of the two economies. the us labour market exhibited at a relatively early stage, a greater degree of tightness, evidenced by stronger wage growth in the us than in the euro area. this higher degree of us labour market tightness was another key factor in explaining the medium - term inflationary pressures. by contrast, in the euro area, the pick - up

03. 04. 2018 spain : from recovery to resilience banco de espana - imf high - level seminar luis m. linde governor ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to this banco de espana and international monetary fund joint conference devoted to the recent evolution of the spanish economy in the euro - zone and european union context. i would like to thank the international monetary fund, represented here today by david lipton, first deputy managing director, poul thomsen, director of the european department and andrea schaechter, mission chief for spain, for their proposal to organise this conference. the banco de espana was more than pleased to accept, considering it to be very timely and of great interest. as to the title of the conference : “ spain : from recovery to resilience ”, allow me, before going forward, a candid clarification : i can assure you that it is far from our intent to suggest any pessimistic forecast or premonition. the title refers to our economy ’ s resilience in the face of a hypothetical cyclical downturn which, needless to say, we hope will be later rather than sooner. in 2017 spain ’ s economic recovery maintained the strong growth path of previous years, exceeding expectations for the fourth year in a row. in particular, gdp grew by 3. 1 %, meaning that the economy has grown above 3 % for the third consecutive year. strong domestic and external demand pushed gdp up, and the economy has proved quite resilient to uncertainty shocks. the positive behaviour of the economy contributed to and, in turn, was stimulated by the correction of the macro - financial imbalances accumulated during the pre - crisis and crisis periods. such corrections were particularly significant as regards private sector deleveraging, the reduction of unemployment, the progressive absorption of disequilibria in the housing market, and the balancing of the external accounts, not least due to significant gains in competitiveness. looking forward, nonetheless, a number of questions remain open. will this process continue at such a strong pace? under which conditions would the recovery turn into a sustained and prolonged expansion? which are the main vulnerabilities and weaknesses that policy - makers should tackle in order to raise potential growth and the well - being of the population? is the spanish economy, within the eu framework, well equipped to cope with the next cyclical downturn? is the euro area as a whole well prepared? the programme of this conference