also need more data to monitor unregulated financial institutions and markets. in recent years, significant steps have been taken to identify the data gaps and to fill them by gathering more and more detailed quantitative information. but we are just at the beginning of this process, and i know that statisticians are all too well aware of the fact that the data perimeter may change again in the future. it is vital that the work done at the european union level is consistent with the worldwide dimension. in 2009, the g20 endorsed a report on “ the financial crisis and information gaps ”. that report contains 20 high - level recommendations on the measurement of risks in the financial sector, international financial linkages and the communication of official statistics. bis central bankers ’ speeches quite some progress has been made in the implementation of these recommendations. for example, accounts for economic sectors, statistics on securities, and the principal global indicators website supported by seven international organisations, including the ecb. but it is still necessary to continue with these efforts, in particular on quarterly government finance statistics and on the fsb common template for systemically important global financial institutions. and the transposition of the new rules into all national legal systems needs to proceed swiftly. the role of statisticians going beyond the pure data challenges, the statistical community is still coming to grips with the fact that their work is now more than ever in the spotlight of public debate. “ statistical errors ” were once something in which only specialists were really interested. now, they can receive headline coverage, sometimes even more so than everything else coming out of both official and non - official statistical sources. public scrutiny is good for statistics but it also brings new challenges for statisticians. alongside their more traditional role of collecting data and assisting in the correct interpretation of data, statisticians also need now to be more involved in the communication of results – to the markets, to the media and to the wider public. the role of dashboards and the narrative use of data are examples of tools where the input of statisticians is clearly essential. selected ecb statistical initiatives to fill data gaps together with the rest of the eurosystem, the ecb is undertaking a number of important statistical initiatives to support fulfilment of the ecb ’ s mandate to deliver price stability and the esrb ’ s mandate to mitigate systemic risk. the initiatives will also help other policy - makers and decision - makers. let me briefly mention three of these initiatives : first, the

to adopt more unconventional measures. more structural elements – related to the persuasive views on secular stagnation and the effects of globalisation on inflation – helped to consolidate the notion that the advanced economies are facing a protracted period of low growth and low inflation that central banks are failing to normalise but have to continue to address. consequently, search for yield and trust in a sort of “ central banks ’ put ” was the prevalent narrative until last year. markets are becoming increasingly aware that central banks will not ensure such a put and are thus starting to recalibrate policy, not least as a result of the strong recovery now ongoing. the u. s. elections of last november had already temporarily interrupted the market ’ s belief of the previous narrative. at the turn of the year, the perception was formed that tax cuts and deregulation would spur u. s. growth, which would increase earnings ’ yields, subsequently leading to higher inflation and higher bond yields. consequently, we saw the beginning of a rotation from bonds to stocks with a consequent increase in stock prices and a drop in bond prices ( figure 3 ). 4 / 20 bis central bankers'speeches asset price developments this narrative about a new reflation phase in the world economy petered out last spring, particularly in what regards bonds whose prices have slightly increased since. however, stock prices continued to increase, generating fears and warnings about a possible correction ( figure 3 ) especially in the u. s. where, contrary to the euro area, the cyclical adjusted price earnings is well above historical averages ( figure 4, lhs ). there are already signs that markets are reflecting concerns with possible downward movements : the probability of a 10 % correction in stock prices extracted from option pricing has recently increased albeit remaining quite low ( see figure 4, rhs ) and the price of shortening the vix has recently sharply increased. 5 / 20 bis central bankers'speeches nevertheless, we should ponder that equity market corrections are often not very consequential as the examples of 1987 or 2000 seem to indicate. in general, it is interest rates and fixed rate debt instruments that exert a wider financial and economic impact. as i mentioned before, there are no signs of significant changes in yields despite wide expectations of monetary policy recalibration around the globe. this presumably bodes well for future central banks ’ decisions. figure 5 shows the slow and smooth market expectations extracted from the ois curve, for future eonia for the