deliberations of the management board, we were presented with a number of analyzes and studies prepared by eurosystem working groups. these papers have been published in a number of ecb occasional papers and i urge you to consider them as they address a wide range of monetary policy issues. in addition, the ecb and all the national central banks of the eurosystem, in an effort to listen to the views and expectations of the general public, held events with the participation of representatives of civil society. at the bank of greece we had the opportunity at the simulation conference in december 2020 to find out the opinion of the participants in a series of questions about prices, the economy and their expectations from the central bank. also, in february 2021, we organized the event “ the bank of greece listens to you ", which was attended by representatives of social organizations with the aim of dialogue on issues that concern them and a better understanding of the role of monetary policy. the new strategy sets out the basic principles that guide us in shaping the direction of monetary policy so that we can respond more effectively to various circumstances in order to fulfill our 1 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches primary goal of price stability. at the same time, the strategy provides a clear and consistent benchmark for shaping the expectations of consumers and businesses for the future price level, so that they can make the best possible decisions regarding their activity. i will now turn to the most substantial conclusions of the review. initially, the new strategy stipulates that price stability is best maintained by pursuing an inflation target of 2 % in the medium term. compared to the current wording aimed at lower inflation, but close to 2 %, the new approach now makes it clear that 2 % is not the maximum level that is considered acceptable for inflation, but our symmetrical target. inflation deviations from this target, both negative and positive, are equally undesirable. the redefinition of price stability reflects the need to set a fairly large positive margin for the level of inflation that is considered desirable. the lessons learned from the recent crises reinforce the need to set a higher inflation target to provide more room for monetary policy to reduce interest rates in the event of deflationary pressures and to avoid episodes where nominal interest rates are below the effective threshold. lower bound ). additional factors that are taken into account in determining the inflation target are the differences in the level of inflation between the countries, the rigidities in adjusting the nominal wages downwards,

has grown rapidly ( chart 1 ). as a percentage of world gdp, international trade has almost doubled. goods are still the dominant component, but trade in services has been on the rise. a host of new countries have also increased their share in world trade. substantial technological and economic lags have been reduced. the world ’ s economic balance has shifted. chart 1 world trade1 ) has grown markedly. percent of global gdp. 1975 – 2017 trade in goods trade in services 1 ) trade is defined as the sum of exports and imports of goods and services. source : world bank a more closely interwoven world economy has facilitated specialisation, innovation and better use of local comparative advantages. the room for exchanging ideas and knowledge has expanded. increased competition and innovation have gone hand in hand. efficient global trade is particularly advantageous for small open economies, like norway. norway has benefitted greatly from the opportunities afforded by trade with other countries. it is almost impossible to imagine today ’ s welfare level without the specialisation brought about thanks to a world of open borders. norway exports a limited range of goods and services to the world market ( chart 2 ). this allows norway to finance imports of numerous finished goods, which are cheaper than if we had manufactured them at home. labour is thereby freed up for use in education, health and other services. norges bank economic perspectives 14 february 2019 chart 2 exchange of goods gives norway opportunities. trade in goods. in billions of nok. 2018 exports oil and gas1 ) fish other goods imports 1 ) includes refined oil products. sources : statistics norway and norges bank access to capital and technology abroad has enabled us to develop new industries based on domestic natural resources. hydropower and the oil industry are prime examples. we now invest our petroleum wealth in capital markets. the government pension fund global ( gpfg ) allows norway to take a share in global value added. it gives us a cushion and helps trim the norwegian state ’ s dependence on domestic economic developments. we need other countries – more than they need us. the foundation for today ’ s global trade cooperation was laid in the years following the second world war. institutions such as the imf and the world bank fostered closer economic cooperation between countries. the ratification of the general agreement on tariffs and trade ( gatt ) marked the beginning of a gradual reduction of tariff barriers, which culminated in a rule - based, multinational trade system under the aegis of the world trade organization ( wto ).