, but will bring a fiscal stimulus outside of the restrictions of the eu stability and growth pact. hence, it should have an expansionary effect and will contribute to growth and employment, especially in austria and germany. • when analyzing the fiscal consolidation in cesee, the rei finds that, despite improvements in the quality of budgets in recent years, large fiscal challenges still remain. especially in the see region, sizeable budgetary adjustments are needed. just a few words on today ’ s seminar : we will start out with two presentations : bis central bankers ’ speeches the first one on „ cesee outlook, risks and policy priorities “, will be given by mr. jorg decressin. the second presentation by mr. johannes wiegand will deal with “ reconciling fiscal consolidation and growth in cesee ”. mrs. anna ilyina will then be happy to answer any questions. these presentations will be followed by a panel discussion, to be chaired by my colleague franz nauschnigg. the idea is to have an interactive discussion with the audience. 3 let me now introduce the distinguished panellists : jorg decressin : since early 2014, mr. decressin is deputy director in the european department of the imf. before that, mr. decressin was the research department ’ s deputy director and was in charge of the imf ’ s weo ( world economic outlook ). mr. decressin holds a ph. d. from harvard university, a b. sc. from lse and has published on labor and capital market adjustments, deflation, and on fiscal policy and financial integration in europe. johannes wiegand : mr. wiegand is economist in the imf ’ s european department and was mission chief to kosovo and desk officer for hungary. before that, mr. wiegand has worked in the imf ’ s research, policy development and review department as well as in the african department, and has published on macro - financial linkages, financial stability and on emerging market vulnerabilities. mr. wiegand holds a ph. d. and m. sc. from the university college london. anna ilyina : mrs. ilyina is chief of the emerging economies division in the imf ’ s european department since 2013. before that, she was deputy chief of the global markets analysis division and of the financial sector analysis division in the imf ’ s monetary and capital markets department. mrs.

philipp hildebrand : ( the ) productivity ( imperative ) summary of a speech by mr philipp hildebrand, vice - chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at avenir suisse, zurich, 24 september 2007. the complete speech can be found in german on the swiss national banka€™s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * just a few years ago, the weak growth of the swiss economy was a dominant topic in public debate. for four years now, the economy has been advancing strongly. is this merely a cyclical boom? or has structural change taken place, affecting both productivity and the associated potential growth path? this would have far - reaching implications, not least for monetary policy. a number of factors indicate that structural change is indeed occurring and that this could ultimately result in an increase in the underlying productivity trend. however, time lags and cyclical distortions make it difficult to identify such changes.