education in the digital world opening speech by ignazio visco governor of the bank of italy centesimus annus pro pontifice foundation – seventh consultation meeting “ ethos, education and training : avenues toward equality and ethical behaviours in the digital era ” catholic university of the sacred heart milan, 31st january 2020 let me first thank the centesimus annus pro pontifice foundation for organising this meeting and its president, my former colleague anna maria tarantola, for her kind invitation. in this talk, i will first describe the main changes that are taking place in the global economy, focusing on their consequences for employment and work opportunities. i will then discuss the role of education in responding to these changes. over the past 30 years, the world has undergone a radical transformation driven by two main phenomena. the first is technological progress, with the innovations developed in the information and communications sector in the 1990s and, more recently, with the so - called digital revolution. the second is that this process has taken place in the context of a progressive globalisation, i. e. the liberalisation of international trade in goods, services and financial capital, which is being accompanied by strong growth in the cross - country movements of information, ideas and people. these phenomena are having widespread profound effects, right down to our everyday lives : – the introduction of the internet in the early nineties has permanently changed interpersonal communications and is now shaping how consumption and production take place. the rapid development of mobile telephony has favoured its diffusion : while in 1990 there were only two subscriptions per one thousand people around the globe, there is now more than one subscription per head. the share of the global population using the internet has then grown over the last 20 years, from a mere 7 per cent to over 50 per cent, with many countries, and not only the most advanced, well above 90 per cent ; – as a result, the digital economy is among the fastest growing sectors. in the european union it produces about 7 per cent of total value added. the sharp rise in the shares of firms who make a significant part of their revenue by selling online, of those who purchase cloud - computing services and of employees with business access to the internet suggests that in the future this sector will continue to increase rapidly ; – the integration of markets and the international fragmentation of production have given rise to so - called global value chains : for many consumer goods, each single component is sourced from the countries where it is produced most

banca d ’ italia and suerf workshop ‘ the effectiveness of monetary policy in a low interest rate environment ’ welcome address by daniele franco senior deputy governor of the bank of italy rome, 18 november 2020 i am happy to welcome you all to the banca d ’ italia and suerf ’ s joint workshop on ‘ the effectiveness of monetary policy in a low interest rate environment ’. as you may know, we had scheduled this workshop to take place in june, but we had to postpone it, because of the pandemic. we also had to move to a virtual setting and rely on video connections. the workshop addresses issues that are now at the top of policymakers ’ agendas around the world. the pandemic has led to the worst recession in recent history, and the scars that it will leave on the global economy are likely to prolong the low interest rate environment. monetary policy is playing a key role in supporting the recovery and its contribution will remain fundamental in the coming years. the discussion on strategies, targets and tools remains open. today and tomorrow, we will have the opportunity to embark on a wide - ranging debate on the challenges ahead. in my remarks today, i will touch upon a few of them. to begin with, i think we can all agree that the pandemic crisis has further exacerbated the effects of some ongoing long - term trends. some of these trends have already been in place since the great financial crisis and its aftermath. i am mostly referring to the drop in the natural rate of interest1 and to the subdued inflation dynamics. these trends are due to structural changes in macroeconomic relationships and imply a need both to reassess theoretical frameworks and to review the monetary policy strategy and tools. in this respect, the first session deals with monetary policy strategy in such a low interest rate environment. this of course calls into question the issue of the appropriateness of the current inflation target, which is indeed one of the main items on the table in see ex multis neri, s. and gerali, a. ( 2019 ), ‘ natural rates across the atlantic ’, journal of macroeconomics, 62. the eurosystem ’ s monetary policy strategy review. i will not comment further on the strategy review, since it is still ongoing. another important theme in the “ post - pandemic ” environment will be the interaction between fiscal and monetary policy. as we know, fiscal policy worldwide was boldly expansionary