to antoine martin, who will address the global economic outlook. global economic outlook global economic growth was moderate in the third quarter of 2024. economic activity remained solid in the us, while in the euro area it improved only slightly. growth in the chinese economy was rather modest by longer - term comparison. the services sector continued to contribute positively to economic activity worldwide. by contrast, momentum in large parts of manufacturing remained subdued. recently, inflation in many countries was again close to central banks ’ targets. this was due, among other things, to lower energy prices. however, core inflation remained elevated. in page 2 / 4 anticipation of a continued decline in inflation, various central banks cut their policy rates further this quarter. underlying inflationary pressure abroad is likely to carry on easing gradually over the next quarters. at the same time, the pace of global growth should remain moderate. household purchasing power should continue to recover and, together with the monetary policy easing, support growth. uncertainty about the economic outlook has increased in recent months. in particular, the future course of economic policy in the us is still uncertain, and political uncertainty has also risen in europe. in addition, geopolitical tensions could result in weaker development of global economic activity. equally, it cannot be ruled out that inflation could remain higher than expected in some countries. this brings us to the situation in switzerland, which petra tschudin will present. swiss economic outlook as expected, gdp growth in switzerland was only modest in the third quarter of 2024. growth in the services sector was again somewhat stronger, while value added in manufacturing declined. there was a further slight increase in unemployment, and employment growth was only subdued. the utilisation of overall production capacity was normal. we anticipate gdp growth of around 1 % for the current year. thanks also to the easing of monetary policy in recent quarters, growth should pick up somewhat next year, albeit only slightly due to the moderate global economic activity. we currently expect growth of between 1 % and 1. 5 % for 2025. in this environment, unemployment should continue to rise slightly, while the utilisation of production capacity is likely to decline somewhat. our forecast for switzerland, as for the global economy, is subject to significant uncertainty. developments abroad represent the main risk. i will now hand back to martin schlegel. monetary policy outlook ladies and gentlemen, allow me to return to our monetary policy. at our september assessment, we had already indicated that further monetary policy easing

of direct debits has worked well in some respects, but a more modern system is now needed. the payto service will allow households and businesses to authorise other entities to initiate payments out of their accounts, opening up a range of possibilities for innovation. we expect the industry to keep its commitment to a successful launch of the new system in july next year. the second area where we would like to see more progress is the ‘ payment with document ’ overlay on the npp. this service, and particularly the ability to include a link to a document with a payment, would promote innovation and reduce costs. this service will aid reconciliation for recipients. and payers will find they need to devote fewer resources to managing customer queries. unfortunately, progress by the industry has been slow here. despite this, the rba – as the australian government's banker – https : / / www. rba. gov. au / speeches / 2021 / sp - gov - 2021 - 12 - 09. html 4 / 9 payments : the future? | speeches | rba is working with the government and with the commonwealth bank to introduce the payment with a document service. we encourage others to join this effort. further progress is also needed to deliver the benefits from open banking. open banking strengthens competition and promotes innovation by giving customers the right to control and share their banking data with accredited third parties. it can help customers have a ‘ top down ’ view of their financial position and manage their upcoming payments. it can also help to streamline the credit assessment processes and help consumers get a better deal. the banks are making progress with implementation, but some have not met the target dates. it is important that progress does not slip here, especially as the number of accredited data recipients continues to increase. the fourth area where it would be good to see further progress is the development of widely accepted digital identity services. when i spoke at this conference three years ago, i spoke about how the digital economy needs a strong form of digital identity. i did so because i was concerned that australia was slipping behind global best practice in this area. since then, two frameworks for interoperable digital identity services have been developed, but there has not been a large - scale rollout of a digital identity service that can be used for a wide range of online ( including private sector ) interactions. [ 1 ] so further progress on this front would be welcome. the final focus area i want to mention is cross - border