##ng fears of a fall in the purchasing power of money, paradoxically at a time when inflation ( the key measure of the purchasing power ) in developed countries is lower on average than it has been for years! put simply, we have been warning about the risk of flooding for so long that we are now unable to explain that drought can be just as big a problem and that at times of drought you have to water the garden, not keep draining it dry. if the hosepipes are blocked, moreover, you have to use other means to supply the plants with water. if we do not succeed here, we central bankers will have great difficulty being credible in the future. 4 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches literature : holston, k., laubach, t., & williams, john c. ( 2016 ) : “ measuring the natural rate of interest : international trends and determinants, ” working paper series 2016 – 11, federal reserve bank of san francisco. 5 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches

mojmir hampl : life outside the eurozone speech by mr mojmir hampl, vice governor of the czech national bank, at the 5th a / symmetrie ( italian association for the study of economic asymmetries ) conference " euro, market, democracy ", montesilvano, italy, 13 november 2016. * * * ladies and gentlemen, good morning. many thanks to alberto bagnai for kindly inviting me to speak at this event today. and many thanks to you all, to this audience. it is my first time here and i must say i am really impressed that so many people are willing to invest their effort, money and whole weekend ( literally two days ) in actively listening to debates on many – sometimes rather abstract – macroeconomic topics. that is truly amazing and at the same time encouraging. believe me, many people i know are unable to concentrate on presentations even during their working hours in the office, even though they are actually being paid to do so by their employer. so my applause goes to you and to alberto for mobilising you. great job. ladies and gentlemen, the downside of my presentation today is that i am a part of the monetary establishment – of the disliked club of central bankers. that means a thumb down for me in your eyes. the upside – and what saves me today – is that i ’ m a policy - maker not in your monetary zone, in the eurozone, but in the czech monetary zone, where we pay with our own currency, the czech crown. the usual disclaimer applies : my opinions are not necessarily shared by the czech national bank, but i do not care too much, as i am very much a part of the group which formulates the bank ’ s positions anyway, so i do not want to distance myself from myself. i just want to say that all the blame for what i say is on me. our topic is life outside the euro, and as you can see i am alive and well. after what i heard yesterday about the countries in the eurozone, i am even happier than before that we are not in this particular club at the moment. i heard many comments on de - industrialisation in the eurozone. well, this is not our case. with industrial production accounting for much more than 30 % of our gdp, the czech republic has the highest proportion of industrial production on output in the whole of the eu. and this share has actually been rising rather