of excellent economists and professionals have contributed to the design of monetary policy, a better understanding of our economy, and to administering an institution to which the country has entrusted great responsibility and to which we have an enormous obligation of excellence. thank you very much. table 1 evolution of the central banks'autonomy index and inflation ( * ) i. late 1980s autonomy index political economic average inflation economies advanced emerging developing 5. 3 % 18. 6 % 22. 5 % 0. 39 0. 27 0. 27 total 0. 59 0. 38 0. 45 0. 48 0. 32 0. 35 ii. 2003 average inflation economies advanced emerging developing autonomy index political economic 2. 1 % 7. 0 % 8. 4 % 0. 74 0. 47 0. 29 total 0. 81 0. 75 0. 67 0. 77 0. 61 0. 48 ( * ) countries with annual inflation above 100 % were deleted from the sample. sources : arnone et al. ( 2007 ) and imf. figure 1 drop in inflation and change in the autonomy of the central banks * % drop in inflation - 0. 2 - 0. 1 0 0. 2 0. 4 0. 6 - 0. 3 - 0. 5 - 0. 7 - 0. 9 - 1. 1 change in independence index ( * ) drop in inflation corresponds to the percent variation of average inflation between periods 1980 - 1989 and 2000 - 2008. change in the independence index corresponds to the change in arnone et al. ( 2007 )'s autonomy index between the late 1980s and 2003. sources : imf and arnone et al. figure 2 growth volatility in chile, 1911 - 2010 ( * ) ( standard deviation of the growth rate ) 18 % 15 % 12 % 15. 0 % 11. 5 % 12. 0 % 9 % 7. 5 % 7. 3 % 5. 1 % 6 % 2. 9 % 3 % 0 % 6. 9 % 3. 6 % 2. 2 % 1911 - 1921 - 1931 - 1941 - 1951 - 1961 - 1971 - 1981 - 1991 - 20011920 1990 2000 ( * ) 2009 - 2010 based on the ipom of september 2009. source : central bank of chile. figure 3 percentage drop in the mpr between september 2008 and september 2009 and central bank independence % drop in mpr ( 09. 2008 09. 2009 ) 1. 0 0. 9 0. 8 0. 7 0. 6 0. 5

mario draghi : 2006 world savings day address by mr mario draghi, governor of the bank of italy, on the occasion of the 2006 world savings day, at the association of italian savings banks ( acri ), rome, 31 october 2006. * 1. * * savings and investment half a century ago, when italy was moving towards prosperity, it was the parsimony of its population that financed economic growth. right up to the mid - 1970s, while expenditure on investment amounted to 26 per cent of gross national disposable income, private saving exceeded 30 per cent, with more than two - thirds of it due to households ; their thrift was encouraged and upheld as a social virtue. towards the end of the twentieth century, both expenditure on capital goods and private saving diminished to around 20 per cent of national income ; household saving dropped below 9 per cent. since then, italian households have started to save again, partly in response to the public pension reforms of the 1990s ; they continue to be among the thriftiest of the developed countries. with no more barriers to capital movements and a globalized financial market, savings worldwide are now in search of investment opportunities, wherever they may arise. the link between saving and investment is no longer related to national borders. only a growing country will attract capital, from both within and without. italy ’ s weak economic growth in the past ten years has been aggravated by inadequate investment, not so much in terms of quantity as of quality and composition. the technological component of real assets, human capital and organizational structure are of growing importance. if the present recovery is to last, economic policy and the financial system must support the restructuring of production, channelling savings towards innovative investment. 2. returning to growth 2006 is about to become another year of record growth in world output. since the summer there have been increasingly clear signs of slower growth in the united states, where the lengthy property boom appears to be coming to an end. world demand may be affected by the slowdown, but it continues to be fuelled by the exceptional growth of the asian economies. economic growth in the euro area is considerably stronger now than in the previous months. the momentum could be lessened over the next quarters by the decline in demand in the united states and the need for some of the main euro - area countries to consolidate their public finances. in italy, too, gdp growth resumed at a rapid pace in the first half of this year. industrial production recorded an estimated year -