Challenges for the global economy

Presentation by Mr Claudio Borio, Head of the Monetary and Economic Department of the BIS, at the Belgium Financial Forum, Bruxelles, 14 September 2015.

BIS speech  | 
14 September 2015
by Claudio Borio

Drawing on the latest BIS Annual Report, the presentation assesses the challenges the global economy is facing and possible policy responses.  The lens used to elaborate the diagnosis and identify possible remedies focuses on financial, medium-term and global factors, whereas the prevailing perspective focuses more on real, short-term and domestic factors. A key issue is how to interpret the trend decline in interest rates and their persistent unusually low levels: it is argued that this need not be an equilibrium phenomenon, fully consistent with lasting financial, monetary and macroeconomic stability.