ignazio visco : closing of the cultural days of the european central bank – italy 2011 address by mr ignazio visco, governor of the bank of italy, at the closing of the cultural days of the european central bank – italy 2011, european central bank, frankfurt am main, 17 november 2011. * * * mr. president, caro mario, cher christian, colleagues of the central banks, ladies and gentlemen, i attended this evening ’ s closing concert of the european central bank ’ s cultural days dedicated to italy with great pleasure and it is with great pleasure that i now take part in this ceremony in which the baton passes to christian noyer, governor of banque de france. since october 19 the public in frankfurt has had the chance to meet many representatives of contemporary italian culture, artists known and admired the world over and emerging young talents. in this month a gust of italy seems to have blown across frankfurt ( thanks, too, to the coincidence that the cultural events happened to be held at the same time as the installation of an italian president in the eurotower ). after our many years of work together in banca d ’ italia, i again express my best wishes to mario draghi as he takes up the challenge of his new position. music has been the fil rouge of this month of italian culture, inaugurated by the orchestra mozart of bologna under the direction of maestro claudio abbado and concluded this evening by the remarkable and fascinating performance of the orchestra verdi of milan under maestro xian zhang. in between, the master violinist uto ughi performed on the occasion of the charity event. to be sure, there has been no lack of significant moments dedicated to the other expressions of italian culture, with the participation of great contemporary italian writers, such as claudio magris and dacia maraini, and the projection of a series of italian movies in which six directors confronted the theme of the family between tradition and modernity. contemporary music, too, has been showcased, with the virtuoso, high - energy performance of stefano bollani, one of italy ’ s most celebrated young jazz musicians. still, we wanted to open and close the programme in the grand tradition of classical music. the two orchestras – the mozart of bologna and the verdi of milan – have an important common denominator : both are examples of how superb results can be achieved when there is the active will to discover and promote young performers and the conviction that music is both a means of

policy in recent years, the krone would have been weaker. experience has also shown that the krone weakens when oil prices fall or, as we saw this summer, financial markets experience turbulence. chart 7 : inflation will slow and unemployment edge up 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches with the current policy rate path, inflation is projected to move down further and approach 2 percent towards the end of 2027. unemployment will likely edge up to about the level prevailing before the pandemic. many people have experienced tighter household budgets in recent years, but most people will find that their budgets will stretch further going forward. interest expenses will still be high, but we expect wages to rise faster than prices, and the debt burden will be easier to bear. the economy may evolve differently than we now anticipate. if the outlook suggests that inflation will return to target faster or there is a more pronounced slowdown in the norwegian economy, the policy rate may be lowered faster than currently envisaged. on the other hand, if the krone depreciates further or economic pressures increase, inflation could remain elevated for longer. a higher policy rate than currently envisaged may then be required. inflation has slowed sharply. that's welcome news, and now it's important that we go the last mile of returning inflation back to the target. by maintaining confidence in the inflation target, we are better equipped to deal with new shocks and periods of turbulence in the future. 3 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches