central banks : observers or leaders of change? published : 9 / 3 / 2023 speech by deputy governor sandra svaljek at the money motion 2023 conference on 9 march 2023 dear guests, i remember when governor vujcic stood here on lauba stage in december 2020 at the time of covid restrictions... today, there are so many more speakers and participants here, many of you from abroad and i would like to congratulate organizers on that, and for bringing together banking, financial and fintech representatives all in one place. moreover, having both challengers and incumbents here means there may even be a chance for a few of them to engage in coopetition. the times they are a - changin'in recent years, we have seen many negative global developments, such as lockdowns, restrictions, supply chain bottlenecks, aggression in ukraine, oil price shock and sanctions. on the positive side, technology is constantly changing and evolving, revolutionising how we live and work owing to pronounced advancements in computing power, ai and machine learning, 5g technology and cloud computing. it all profoundly affects how we perceive money. so, the name of this conference - money motion - precisely depicts the evolving and shape - shifting nature of money due to these developments. while the diffusion of technologies is accelerating as well, it is precisely in the area of payments where it is the most rapid. we are still determining what this will bring and which form the money will eventually take. are we going to see the decline in the dominance of one global currency and its replacement by a new one or the formation of an alliance between currencies? will it be the dominance of technology companies in providing payment services to the general public? trust whatever the case may be, there is one thing we are certain of : nothing has changed in our central banking task of maintaining the trust of the public in money and the financial system. or to quote my colleague banker from the bank for international settlements, mr augustin carstens, " the soul of money is trust. ". we are still here to pursue monetary policy goals, to preserve the value of money by providing trust in the value of money and to offer money as a payment instrument that is widely accepted, secure, cheap and convenient. our institutional task is to maintain confidence in the financial system and to serve as an anchor – a digital exchange for all other sorts of money that private issuers offer. to mention at this

luis m linde : overview of spain ’ s economy in 2012 – reflection and outlook testimony by mr luis m linde, governor of the bank of spain, before the parliamentary committee on economic affairs and competitiveness, madrid, 20 june 2013. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i appear before this committee on the occasion of the presentation of the banco de espana annual report for 2012, one of the most difficult years for the spanish economy of the last decades. i shall begin with a review of the general economic situation, and then focus on the progress achieved in restoring the major balances of our economy, developments in credit and in household and corporate debt, the headway in balance sheet clean - up and restructuring of our banking system, financial regulation reforms and progress in the european banking union project. i shall conclude with a reflection on the outlook for our economy. situation of and outlook for the spanish economy throughout 2012 the spanish economy held on the contractionary course that first became discernible in late 2011. gdp fell by 1. 4 % during the year, far above the 0. 5 % decline recorded in the euro area as a whole. this double - dip recession, the second dip of which is less acute in terms of the decline in output but more persistent than its 2008 – 2009 forerunner, has had particularly serious consequences for employment, which shrank for the fifth year running in 2012. the main macroeconomic and financial figures for 2012 speak for themselves as regards the intensity of the adjustments made in an attempt to overcome the serious imbalances that emerged during the last upturn. the fall in household income, prompted above all by the heavy decline in employment, along with high household debt, continued to exert a contractionary effect on spending capacity against an overall background of uncertainty. once again in 2012, companies, many of which are immersed in deleveraging and financial restructuring processes, cut their investment, while the adjustment in the construction sector continued. meanwhile, the general government sector tailored its spending plans to the need to reduce the budget deficit, following the serious budgetary slippage evidenced at the close of 2011. all these factors combined to bring about a strong decline in national demand, which was only partly offset by the positive contribution of the external sector. imports fell forcefully, mirroring the weakness of final demand, while exports expanded despite the poor performance of the euro area markets, to which spain still directs half of its foreign sales. however, developments to date in 2013 appear to confirm that the