m r pridiyathorn devakula : maintaining stability with a nuanced approach speech by mr m r pridiyathorn devakula, governor of the bank of thailand, at the stock exchange of thailand, bangkok, 20 september 2004. * * * distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by thanking the stock exchange of thailand for inviting me here to speak today. you have already heard from our minister of finance a comprehensive framework for sustainable growth in the next five years, with an integrated set of targets for various sectors and various dimensions of the economy. this is a welcome initiative and an important policy development. the bank of thailand ’ s role is to ensure economic and financial stability in order to support continued growth of the economy. from our experience, monetary policy alone is not enough to achieve desirable stability. we need to involve ourselves in two other areas, i. e. to guard against possible build - ups of financial imbalances and to further strengthen the financial sector. first of all, i will begin with our assessment of the current economic conditions to assure you that, in spite of the greater risks and challenges that have emerged this year, thailand ’ s growth momentum continues to remain firm, with economic and financial stability intact. key challenges have included increased external pressure from higher oil prices, rising global interest rates, and the potential impact of a slowdown of the chinese economy. we have also faced several challenges at home, which include two episodes of the avian flu and a decline in consumer and investor sentiment linked to the situation in the south. but despite these risks and challenges, the thai economy has managed quite well under the circumstances. the latest data showed real gdp to have grown by an impressive 6. 4 percent for the first half of this year, reflecting the resiliency of our economy, which is still growing at a respectable rate, in spite of many negative external developments. favourable conditions for the export of goods and services have allowed a continued surplus of our current account. this has been accompanied by corresponding reductions in external debt which fell from the peak of 112 billion us dollars in june 1997 to 50 billion us dollars in june of this year. meanwhile, international reserves of 44 billion us dollars in august also provide a level of protection that should help the economy comfortably absorb external shocks. it was mainly an account of the strength of this external position that thailand ’ s credit rating was upgraded by standard and poor ’ s last month. ladies and gentlemen, at this time,

david dodge : recent review of the canadian economy opening statement by mr david dodge, governor of the bank of canada, to the house of commons finance committee, ottawa, 19 april 2005. * * * good afternoon, mr. chairman and members of the committee. we appreciate the opportunity to meet with this committee twice a year, following the release of our monetary policy reports. these meetings help us keep members of parliament and, through you, all canadians informed about the bank ’ s views on the economy, and about the objective of monetary policy and the actions we take to achieve it. last thursday, we released our april monetary policy report. in the report, we said that the global economy has been unfolding largely as expected, and the outlook for the canadian economy is essentially unchanged from that in january ’ s monetary policy report update. the canadian economy continues to adjust to global economic developments. this was also an important theme last october when paul and i appeared before this committee. these developments include the realignment of currencies in response to global imbalances, the higher prices of both energy and non - energy commodities, and growing competition from emerging - market economies. in canada, we are seeing more evidence of sectoral adjustments to these global developments. many canadian commodity - producing sectors are expanding. however, firms in some other sectors that are exposed to international trade are facing pressure from the appreciation of the canadian dollar and from foreign competition. on balance, net exports have been a drag on the economy. but with robust domestic demand, some sectors - such as retail, wholesale, and housing - have been growing strongly. the bank expects canada ’ s economy to grow by about 2 1 / 2 per cent in 2005 and 3 1 / 4 per cent in 2006, with growth this year and next coming primarily from strength in domestic demand. to continue to support aggregate demand, we decided to leave the target for the overnight rate unchanged at 2. 5 per cent on 12 april. the bank continues to judge that the economy is operating slightly below its production capacity, and we expect that it will move back to full capacity in the second half of 2006. core inflation is projected to return to 2 per cent around the end of 2006. based on the scenario implied by oil - price futures, total cpi inflation is expected to remain slightly above 2 per cent this year, and to move slightly below 2 per cent in the second half of 2006. in line with this outlook for growth and inflation, a reduction of monetary stimulus