##s and accelerating inflation. and in february 2022, russia launched its illegal war in ukraine. the energy crisis caused by the war hit the european economy hard. the euro area's imported energy bill increased in 2022 by €400 billion, i. e. by around 3 – 4 % of gdp. this meant a substantial and possibly longlasting cut in the average european's standard of living. 2 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches at that point, the combination of stagnant growth and accelerating inflation was a completely credible prospect. on the one hand, the sharp rise in energy prices accelerated inflation. and on the other, the substantial increase in geopolitical uncertainty and the ending of energy imports and trade with russia seemed destined to undermine europe's economic recovery. monetary policy was thus facing a major dilemma. after a period of deliberation from march until june, the ecb began, in july 2022, a series of policy rate increases that was exceptionally rapid and consistent – due to the exceptionally high inflation rate. in line with our revised strategy, our goal was to tame inflation over the medium term by preventing a wage - price spiral and thus keeping inflation expectations anchored. in my view, this goal has been, by and large, achieved ( see graph ). our symmetric 2 % inflation target and the medium - term orientation of monetary policy have made a soft landing possible : economic growth has been somewhat subdued as a result of the rise in interest rates, but the risk of a persistent economic crisis has been avoided, and inflation has been stabilized over a period of 2 – 3 years ( knock on wood ). some have argued that we did not hit the brakes early enough. let me say that many of us policymakers would in fact have been ready to raise rates already in march 2022 in the face of soaring inflation, but russia's invasion of ukraine brought a return to the era of brutal geopolitics and created a massive cloud of uncertainty over europe's economy. my initial feeling – even in retrospect, a completely rational one – was that it would probably have serious stagflationary consequences, hitting growth and generating inflation, a kind of " back to the 70s ". in that context, it made complete sense to pause for a minute and wait for the clouds to clear before choosing the policy stance. this is something worth remembering in all post - mortems of the recent polycrisis years. this links very much

jean - pierre roth : more growth a must summary of a speech by mr jean - pierre roth, chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the swiss economic forum, thun, 27 may 2005. the complete speech can be found in german on the swiss national bank ’ s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * since the mid - 1970s now, economic growth in switzerland has been significantly lower than that of other industrialised nations. in terms of per capita gdp among oecd countries, switzerland lost its leading position during this time, falling back into the main field. economic growth is vital, however, for the sustainability of our social security institutions. demographic shifts will cause the ratio of pensioners to contributors to double in the next 30 years, with the result that tomorrow ’ s generation will be faced with a heavy burden – one that could be considerably lightened by higher growth rates. the soft growth in switzerland is primarily attributable to the lack of competition in the domestic market. there are numerous known ways to boost growth which have proven successful in many other countries. so far, however, switzerland unfortunately has neither grasped the importance of implementing these measures, nor does it have the political will to do so. stronger economic growth can only be achieved by opening our domestic market to competition, contributing to the attractiveness of switzerland as a business centre and strengthening our human capital. the necessary reforms will call for short - term sacrifices from all walks of life, such as the relinquishment of protection and privileges. however, the long - term gains in wealth for the country at large will more than compensate for these short - term difficulties.