with the public – be it a public or private body ; be it the central bank or one of the firms we regulate – the core requirements is to do its job well, serve the public well, and demonstrate as much in an open, transparent and engaged way. 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches which brings me to our updated communications & engagement strategy, and open & engaged charter. our communications & engagement strategy places a much greater emphasis on engagement with external stakeholders. we were influenced greatly by the iap2 ( international association for public participation ) spectrum of citizen engagement, as cited in the department's own work on this issue. 7 at one end of the spectrum, as you know, is " telling " – one - way communication of key messages. historically, the central bank was good at that. we were not so good as you moved further up the spectrum towards genuine two - way engagement – listening as well as telling, and accepting informed views when and where relevant. we had made progress on this since the lessons of the financial crisis, and the communications & engagement strategy seeks to build on this progress. it has four key pillars, namely : culture - we emphasise our communications and engagement culture, working with our people to drive enhanced engagement. dialogue - we emphasise dialogue in our communications and engagement activities. we actively listen, and, where appropriate, reflect community perspectives in our work. reach - we expand our reach and impact by building relations with a wider range of stakeholders, including the public, participants in the real economy, our international peers. insight - we measure the impact and outcomes of our communications and engagement. we adjust and improve based on what we learn. the strategy is rooted in the premise that communication and engagement is a task for the whole bank, guided by our values. we have distilled the strategy into a one - page open & engaged charter – effectively our commitment to our stakeholders. as the governor has noted, " we're seeking to understand and be understood ". implementation of the strategy and charter are still in relative infancy. but we hope – and expect – that our stakeholders will see and feel the change in our engagement in the time ahead. so we seek to deliver on our mandate – and we seek to engage effectively on it – and in doing so, demonstrate trustworthiness. the key question is, will that deliver on our objective of building trust? let's be clear : collectively, we are fighting incredible headwinds on this

with core inflation over the past 12 months dipping to 1. 6 percent. now, most people don ’ t seem that bothered by inflation that is a touch too low, but at the federal reserve we have set a long - run inflation goal of 2 percent. when inflation runs persistently above or below that goal, we take that very seriously. so far, the recent downward movement appears mostly to reflect normal volatility in inflation statistics. for example, if you look at my preferred measure of underlying inflation, called trimmed - mean inflation — which removes the most volatile price movements — it ’ s been running at 2 percent. this measure of inflation hasn ’ t shown any signs of trending up or down. that said, i will be watching developments closely for signs of a persistent shift away from our 2 percent long - run goal. as i mentioned, the economy started the year with a lot of momentum. but there are reasons to believe that the surge in growth won ’ t persist through the remainder of the year. taking into account of all the indicators we follow, i anticipate a step - down of economic growth, from the 3 percent growth recorded last year to a still - solid pace of about 2 - 1 / 4 percent in 2019. 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches this is good news. it ’ s above the economy ’ s underlying potential, but not unsustainably so. healthy economic growth should in turn fuel solid job gains, higher wages for workers, and some further declines in unemployment. the strong economy and labor market should also support inflation returning to 2 percent, the federal reserve ’ s long - run goal. the global picture in addition to the positive data we ’ ve been getting for the u. s., we ’ ve also seen encouraging signs that risks from global economic and financial markets are abating. last year there were worries that the global growth slowdown centered in china and europe would spill over onto our shores. this was one factor contributing to a more downbeat assessment of u. s. growth and the stock market sell - off. since then, we ’ ve seen more positive readings on china ’ s economy, in part due to steps the authorities have taken to reignite growth. and financial markets have definitely rebounded from their winter doldrums. still, we ’ re not entirely out of the woods regarding risks from a global growth slowdown. signs of weakness in japan, south korea, and some regions of europe continue,