mr. george discusses monetary policy, unemployment and economic growth in the united kingdom speech by the governor of the bank of england, mr. e. a. j. george, at the tuc congress in blackpool on 15 / 9 / 98. thank you, chairman. i ’ m actually very pleased to be here, and to have this opportunity to respond directly to some of the serious concerns that have been expressed recently by trade union leaders - among others - about monetary policy. let me start with what is perhaps your biggest concern. you think that the monetary policy committee, which i chair and which sets interest rates, is only interested in controlling inflation and takes little or no account of the effects of its decisions on real economic activity and jobs. some of you evidently think that ’ s because we ’ re a crowd of “ pointy - heads ” or “ inflation nutters ”, or even “ manufacturing hooligans ” - and i ’ m not sure these descriptions are intended as terms of endearment. more seriously some of you think that the problem lies with our remit from the government which is first, to maintain price stability - defined as an underlying inflation rate of 2½ %, and, subject to that, to support the economic policy of the government, including its objectives for growth and employment. whatever the reason, your concern is that we place too much emphasis on holding prices down and not enough on keeping growth and employment up. the implication is that you see a trade - off between inflation and the rate of economic growth, so that if only we ’ d let up a bit on controlling inflation then this country could enjoy higher activity and lower unemployment, which are the really good things in life - or at least we could avoid some of the worst damage that is currently being inflicted upon the whole of the agriculture, large parts of manufacturing industry and even some services sectors. and that might even be true for a time. the trouble is that, in anything other than the short term, it would be likely to mean more rather than less economic damage, and lower rather than higher growth and employment. often in the past in this country we behaved as if we thought that promoting higher growth and employment - which of course is what we all want to see - was largely a matter of pumping up demand. we paid too little attention to the structural, supply - side, constraints. all too often we tried to buy faster growth and higher employment even at the expense of a bit more inflation. in

management perspective ”, bis quarterly review, september. benefit of contributing to the development and a more generalized adoption of standards and best practices in this market. naturally, it is also important to consider that investment in green bonds by these institutions is not free of constraints such as, for instance, those related to accessibility and liquidity. lastly, and rounding all this up, it is important to raise awareness and help develop the sense of commonality required to achieve greater adherence to a collective strategy. to this end, sustained collaboration among all relevant parties geared towards capacity building and knowledge sharing is essential, while the establishment of frameworks conducive to the wider diffusion and disclosure of the issues and actions undertaken, including to the general public, further adds to these objectives.