legal certainty and consumer protection ( and support financial stability ). at the moment, there is no regulatory protection for consumers in the world of crypto. conclusion the financial landscape is changing and central banks are adapting to the change. our work on a digital euro, the ongoing developments in the eu regulatory framework and wider international developments will help us to better understand the benefits and risks from introducing " real " digital currencies. more generally, as public policymakers, we have a responsibility to ensure that innovation serves the public interest, by providing clear rules to the innovators while at the same time engaging with a wide range of stakeholders – households, businesses, and the payments industry in particular – as we consider how the financial system of the future can operate in the best interests of the wider economy. gabriel makhlouf

“ beyond the aggregates : the diverse effects of covid - 19 on employment, income & savings ” deputy governor sharon donnery 30 march 2021 address by sharon donnery to the national university of ireland, galway, 30 march 2021. view slides used during the presentation good afternoon, it is a pleasure to join you ( virtually ) at the whitaker institute, national university of ireland, galway. 1 it is over a year now since covid - 19, epidemiology and zoom became staples of our conversations, our routines, our day to day. we have seen how the covid - 19 pandemic has had devastating effects on lives, livelihoods and lifestyles. in economic terms, we have seen the worst peacetime global contraction since the great depression. and while the world economy is expected to grow by 5. 6 % in 2021 according to the latest projections, 2 due to the partial nature of the rebound, over 150 economies are expected to have per - capita incomes below their 2019 levels in 2021. 3 in ireland, a striking feature of the pandemic had been that gross domestic product ( gdp ) actually grew by 3. 4 % in 2020, in stark contrast globally and to other european countries [ slide 2 ]. the gdp growth gures do point to a strong export performance in 2020 – due to multinational - dominated pharmaceuticals and computing services. 4 however, the issues of using gdp to measure economic activity in ireland are well known, and aggregate economic statistics can only provide a high - level overview of how an economy is performing. gdp growth masks a large fall off of 5. 4 % in domestic demand, re ecting the devastating impact of the pandemic on underlying domestic activity, and consumption in particular, which was down by 9 % in 2020 [ slide 2 ]. looking beyond the aggregate numbers, we saw last year how, while almost half of workers had their incomes directly supported by the state at one point, thousands of rms were shuttered for most of the year, and yet household savings increased by the largest amount ever. today, i will rstly discuss the effects the pandemic has had on employment, incomes and savings, and the importance of looking beyond the aggregate numbers to understand the full effects. secondly, i will discuss the role that employment and income support policies have played in mitigating the worst of the crisis, and the importance of understanding the differing effects of the pandemic as policymakers start shaping plans for the recovery. the worst