problems. i believe that training — combined with the excellent education in economics i got at berkeley — helped me to better diagnose what was going wrong in 2007 and 2008, and how the federal reserve could be most effective in our response to the crisis. economic and monetary policy outlook turning to the economic outlook, the damage wrought by hurricanes harvey, irma, and maria has imposed immeasurable hardship on many. and, the damage will undoubtedly disrupt commerce for some time. however, these effects are likely to be relatively modest in the context of the national economy. natural disasters tend to depress economic activity initially, but once the recovery and reconstruction efforts get underway in earnest, such disasters actually serve to lift economic activity. looking beyond the storm effects — which will make interpreting near - term economic data releases more difficult — the economy remains on a trajectory of slightly above - trend growth at 1 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches about 2 percent, and the fundamentals supporting continued expansion are generally quite favorable. low unemployment, sturdy job gains ( recognizing the near - term negative impact of the storms ), and rising wages ( even at a pace below previous expansions ) are lifting personal income. household wealth has been boosted by rising home and equity prices, and household debt has been growing relatively slowly, contributing to a healthy household balance sheet. thus, consumer spending should continue to advance in coming quarters. business fixed investment outlays are also likely to continue to rise. with the supply of labor tightening, there are greater incentives for businesses to invest in labor - saving technologies. investment spending should also benefit from a better international outlook and the improvement in u. s. trade competitiveness caused by the dollar ’ s recent weakness. the softer dollar and solid growth abroad also suggest that the trade sector will no longer be a significant drag on economic growth. turning to the outlook for inflation, i have been surprised by the persistence of the shortfall from the fomc ’ s 2 percent long - run objective. while some of this year ’ s shortfall can be explained by one - off factors — such as the sharp fall in prices for cellular phone service — its persistence suggests that more fundamental structural changes may also be playing a role. these include the increased ability of prospective buyers to compare prices across different sellers quickly and easily, the shift in retail sales to online channels of distribution from traditional brick - and - mortar stores, and the consequences of these changes on brand loyalty and business pricing power. over the coming months,

##ivity in determining aid recipients. with the wide - spread inclusion of governance criteria in aid conditionality, there is a measure of stress imposed on recipient countries, which generally lack the capacity to pursue the wide range of reforms required, the urgency of some of which have been called into question by some informed observers. some critics see a more sinister dimension in the governance discourse, claiming that the whole purpose of the approach is to create in the developing countries the state - market relationships typical of western neo - liberal systems. this is seen as exploitation by the donor community of developing countries'need for investment, aid and debt relief, to create conditions that will facilitate their infiltration by globalised financial interests. the following statement in the july 2004 issue of south bulletin is typical of this perspective : “ whence this striking paradox, inherent in good governance, of calls going out from the international organisations to national governments that these latter adopt, indeed “ appropriate ”, neo - liberal economic policies imposed from without while the globalised financial markets dispossess them of their sovereignty and insinuate themselves into the countries'ownership structure of capital ”. the controversy continues on the link between governance and development, and while its proponents claim strong empirical evidence for it, there is strong assertion of the contrary, or at least agnostic, view in other quarters. it would seem that the jury is still out on this debate. aspects of governance in sierra leone the principal donor institutions in sierra leone, as in most developing countries, are the world bank, and the imf. donor support programmes coordinated by the world bank are provided within the framework of the bank ’ s country assistance strategy and the poverty reduction strategy paper. following implementation of an interim poverty reduction strategy paper, the bank approved a full poverty reduction strategy paper for sierra leone in february 2005, covering the period 2006 – 2009. the major instrumentality for fund assistance to sierra leone is the poverty reduction and growth facility ( prgf ). a successor arrangement under this facility was agreed with sierra leone in 2006, covering the period 2006 - 2008. it is important to stress that in their country intervention, the imf and world bank liaise with major players in the donor community and, to a greater extent than not, their programmes define the parameters for entry by other donors into the country ’ s assistance programme. consequently, although the overall assistance package usually involves inputs by a number of other parties, including the african development bank, bilateral donors and other donor agencies, the content and direction