prices. moreover, trade restrictions in several commodity - exporting countries and subsidies are impairing the effectiveness of the price mechanism on the commodity markets. the empirical studies published to date leave a key question unanswered, however, namely the extent to which speculative investment in the commodity markets amplify price cycles. nonetheless, there is growing evidence that financial investments do indeed amplify price cycles and at least sometimes help ensure that price trends, despite the underlying parallelism, are being determined more by the futures than the spot markets. with this in mind, the bundesbank broadly supports proposals aimed at significantly improving the data on, as well as the bis central bankers ’ speeches transparency and efficiency of, the markets and a more intensive monitoring. in addition, supervision of the commodities markets and market infrastructure might be strengthened – as market participants have occasionally suggested themselves. ladies and gentlemen, even this short overview shows what a long way we have to go to achieve financial stability. developing a viable monetary policy operational strategy has taken several decades ; we will not have that much time to come up with a sustainable macroprudential strategy. nonetheless, expectations should be anchored at a realistic level ; the crucial requirement is to make sustainable and lasting progress. the exchange of experience between countries is an important element in this process. bis central bankers ’ speeches

andreas dombret : sino - german financial stability forum – introductory statement introductory statement by dr andreas dombret, member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the sino - german high level workshop, frankfurt am main, 11 july 2011. * * * welcome remarks, background dear mr yi gang, dear guests, it is a great pleasure to welcome you to this sino - german workshop, which is being held within the framework of the financial stability forum in frankfurt. our goal of an in - depth exchange of ideas and experience relating to financial stability is part of the overall project of closer cooperation between china and germany, as agreed last summer during chancellor angela merkel ’ s state visit to china. this closer cooperation is evidenced both by the first sino - german intergovernmental consultation in berlin that took place from 27 to 28 june 2011 and by this workshop. both countries share many features. one outstanding common factor is that china and germany occupy the top two spots on the list of leading export nations and, as countries that routinely run up a current account surplus, therefore sometimes hear calls to contribute to global “ rebalancing ” by strengthening domestic demand. the two countries also display clear differences, especially in terms of the openness, depth and diversification of their respective financial systems and financial markets. germany is part of a monetary union, while the renminbi is beginning to gain in importance as an international currency. this is where an exchange of views on the lessons learned during the current financial crisis is likely to be of particular mutual interest today. the structure of the workshop programme and the range of issues covered ensure that specific aspects of financial stability policy in china and germany will be given sufficient space. in this introductory statement, i would like to focus on the following four points : strengthening the international financial system interactions between monetary policy and macroprudential policy risks of the low - interest rate environment and developments in commodity prices strengthening the international financial system my first point relates to the current debate on potential recommendations and measures to strengthen the international monetary system during the french presidency of the g20 group of countries. as you know, these issues are currently being discussed in a g20 working group, particularly measures to manage international capital flows and global liquidity. public political statements and comments reflect clear differences between some emerging market economies and the advanced countries, although a greater consensus on several of these issues has been achieved in recent months. these relate, in particular, to different assessments of what is the