in the upturn : patterns had been broken, parallels with previous crises thanks to resolute action on the part of central banks and other authorities the crisis entered a less acute phase. however, the financial markets were still not functioning effectively and support measures were still needed. but, a total collapse had been avoided and it was possible to see signs of a normalisation on some financial markets. nevertheless, the situation was highly uncertain. it was also difficult to assess the real economy. did the major falls in gdp in sweden and abroad mean that potential gdp had declined? in many countries the households had experienced substantial falls in house prices. to what extent would the need of the households to strengthen their balance sheets mean that consumption would decline and that the ability of monetary policy to stimulate the economy would be weakened? 5 it was clear that the economic patterns that prevailed before the financial crisis had largely been broken. in such a situation it was natural to study the form of the economic recovery following previous crises. the overriding conclusion that could then be drawn was that the recovery would be slower than normal. 6 however, it is also the case that every crisis is unique in many respects and there were circumstances that pointed in the opposite direction. among other things, the emerging economies in asia, led by china, recovered relatively quickly and became something of a driving force for the recovery in the rest of the world. another positive factor was that growth was rather good around the world when the crisis began. 7 with hindsight, it can be noted that the recovery in many areas, and not least in sweden ( see figure 1 above ), has been much more rapid than we could have expected. as can be seen in figure 2, the riksbank began to increase the repo rate somewhat earlier than predicted during the most severe phase of the crisis and the repo - rate path was given a somewhat more “ top heavy ” profile. it is natural to try to learn from previous crises, but at the same time we must be careful not to draw too far - reaching historical parallels. in the midst of the crisis there was, for example, sometimes a slightly careless tendency to refer to the swedish crisis of the 1990s, despite the fact that the circumstances at that time were entirely different. my point here is that if somewhere at the back of your head you have a preconceived idea of how a crisis should develop then it is easy to miss signals that may indicate that the course of the crisis is moving in

together, increased competition and rapid technological developments led to a fall in prices with regard to both telephony and internet connection. the lower prices for users have probably contributed to the widespread use of the internet in sweden. the new technology was perhaps available in all essentials to all developed countries, but the views on deregulation varied. only eight of the 25 member countries, today 30, of the oecd allowed competition in the telecommunications market, while the remaining countries retained a monopoly. there is also a clear connection between use of the internet and competition. competition is allowed in the telecommunications markets of six of the nine countries with the highest internet usage. these countries have also experiences an increase in access to the internet six times as fast as countries that have a monopoly market. another reason for the rapid development in internet usage in sweden could be connected to the structure of the swedish banking system. the banking sector in sweden is dominated by a small number of large operators, all listed on the stock market and with a strong incentive to rationalise their operations. they have also had the resources to rapidly implement new technology. the same applies in the netherlands, which has a similar bank structure. the more internet services a bank can offer its customers, and the better they are, the more customers will use the internet bank and the cheaper the administration costs will be for the bank. if we compare this with the usa, which has a bank market consisting of a large number of small operators, developments there have not been anything like as rapid. only a few us banks offer advanced internet services. the range of services is also much smaller than in sweden. there is a lot to be gained by making payments via the internet, both for the banks and for their customers. sweden, like the other nordic countries, has a giro - based payment system. giro payments corresponded to more than 95 per cent of the total value of payments made in 2000 and to over 70 per cent of the number of transactions. giro instruments are traditionally paper - based. however, the internet enables the paper - based giro system to be speeded up by making it paperless. preliminary figures indicate that approximately 130 million giro payments were made over the internet during 2001. between 1998 and 2000 the number of giro payments initiated over the internet increased by a good 890 per cent. today all swedish banks offer internet banks with rapidly growing range of services. studies also indicate that sweden is way ahead with regard to utilisation of internet services. at the end