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So indeed it is a pleasure to be speaking here this morning at the European Banking Congress. And we are bound to get on well . I was looking at your sign and thinking of mine . And I was thinking of John Lennon as you were going through your speech . We should all be dreamers actually . So this is not my first appearance before your group. I came here before in other capacity but this is certainly my first opportunity as president of the ECB to meet the mayor and the Frankfurt financial community. And I'm sure that it's the first of many . Every moment is a fresh beginning . T.S. Eliot said that I can assure you that that's how it feels for me at the moment but in many respects that's also how it feels about Europe . And this theme your theme of this year's program is very timely . Now I know I know exactly what some of you are thinking. We heard that before. Europe is at a crossroad. This is an inflection point. This is a European moment . And it didn't always happen but it very much feels that way at the moment . Just consider it and you start with the people of Europe . The turnout at the last European election was the best in decades . A new commission led by a woman a German woman with quasi parity in the commissioner's composition is about to begin its term with an agenda to strengthen Europe in areas like environmental policies digitalisation and defense discussions. As you have mentioned quoting my friend Minister Schulz a real awaking and moving towards completing the banking union and building a capital markets union . Now this could be sort of business as usual but it's critically important because around us the world doesn't stand still . In recent years the global environment has changed in multiple ways that we would not have imagined . We have seen the or global order fracturing. We have seen the rise of new and some old powers. We have seen rapid changes in technologies and we certainly have seen an uncertain outlook for global trade and finance . Uncertainty abounds and conventional wisdom is being challenged in politics in diplomacy and in economics and unavoidably this calls on Europe to consider its place in the world and to reset its ambitions . Now I'm no longer a politician . Quite pleased about that actually . So I would like to address those issues from an economic point of view and I will focus on that dimension . How can Europe best position itself in this global economy . I will look at the key challenges the benefits to be drawn from this new ambition. And then of course I'll dig into policies not in a very substantive way yet but I will touch on it . So in my view the challenge is prompted by two major challenges in the global economy today that have that are multifaceted . The first relates to the changing nature of global trade which has multiple causes ongoing trade tensions and geopolitical uncertainties are contributing contributing to a global slowdown of growth and particularly of trade growth which has more than halved since last year. We are seeing little trepidation as we speak but really not much to write home about. And this has in turn depress global growth to its lowest level since the great financial crisis. Forecasts vary between two point nine percent three percent. But this is definitely the lowest we've seen in decades . And these uncertainties have proven much more persistent than expected. And it is clearly having an impact in the euro area . Growth is expected to be at one point one percent this year which is much lower than what we had forecasted back in September . At the same time there are also changes of a more structural nature that also related to the change in trade. We're starting to see a global shift mainly driven by emerging market economies from external demand to domestic demand from investment to consumption from manufacturing to services. Those of you who operate in China know that in parallel the world trade is being reordered as new technologies disrupt conventional supply chain and workforce organization and as potential new significant risks emerge from climate change . And all this obviously has implications for our external sector not least because the euro area exports are intense in capital and intermediate goods . It suggests that one Europe needs to innovate and invest to respond to these challenges and preserve its competitiveness in the longer run. But it also suggests that the high rate of trade growth that we were used to is much more uncertain and certainly cannot be relied on . That's the challenge resulting and about major change in global trade. The second challenge relates to domestic growth in advanced economies . Advanced economies are in the midst of a long term deceleration of global off growth rates which have roughly halved since the late 80s. And this is reflected in the long term decline of global interest rates as growth rates are a fundamental driver of interest rates . Even those countries that have tried to raise interest rates have gradually lowered them again . Why is that. But there is a two side story to that slow low global growth . Supply side factors first such as productivity and demographics are clearly a big driver behind this. Labor productivity growth has fallen by almost two thirds in advanced economies since the early 90s . In 2015 there were four working age people. For one person over 65 . Fast forward one generation 2050 . That ratio will be less than 2 to 1 . That's for the supply side factors but there is also demand side factors in the euro area. Domestic demand has contributed to the recovery helping to create more than eleven million jobs since mid 2013 . But over the past 10 years domestic demand growth has been almost two percentage points lower on average than it was in the decade before the crisis. And it has been slower than that of our main trading partners . You can see that in the shift in our current account position which has moved from being broadly balanced before the crisis to showing a surplus ever since. And you can also see it in the subdued performance of underlying inflation . So these twin external and domestic challenges call on us to consider as Europeans how we could respond how we should respond to this new environment . The answer has multiple aspects to it. But from an economic point of view the answer lies in converting the world's second largest economy into one that is open to the world. For sure . But that is confident in itself an economy that makes full use of Europe's potential to unleash higher rates of domestic demand and longer term growth . Now let me try to point out what it would procure . And there are two key benefits to it. One is resilience and the other one is rebalancing . Resilience rests on two key pillars. It relies on having firms that are competitive globally and can export to the world when domestic growth falls . But it also relies on having a strong internal economy which can sustain demand when the global economy weakens . Might call it hedging . So open trade is therefore a platform for resilience as we saw it very clearly during the sovereign debt crisis from 2010 to 2013. The share of extra euro area goods exports in GDP increased by about 20 percent while the share of that same category only increased by 5 percent intra euro area . The global competitiveness of many euro area firms was a vital shock absorber in that period and the benefits were spread across the monetary union reasonably well. The old value chain linkages if we hadn't had that strong export crisis would have been a lot worse . Now at the same time it is also clear that stronger domestic demand puts economies in better position to withstand swings in the global business cycle and the disruption in the world trade as we are seeing it at the moment . And it helps to keep our growth trajectories on course . Really. Yeah . One sign of this can be found in a by looking at the correlation between global growth and domestic growth over the last 40 years . For countries that have a different trade exposure as seen in their current accounts to look at the group of surplus countries they tend to grow faster than the world economy during period of global upswings . But they also contract more sharply during periods of global downturns. And the exact opposite is true for the deficit countries . Additionally when growth when global growth falls stronger internal demand can also help protect jobs . And this is because domestic demand is more strongly linked to services which is far more labor intensive whereas exports is far more capital intensive . We are actually seeing this that shield in action in the euro area today. The resilience of services is one of the key reasons why we're not suffering the loss of employment as a result of the decline of the manufacturing sector . So that's for resilience. But there is also benefits to be had as a result of rebalancing more dynamic internal growth offers a way to improve the functioning of the euro area and to accelerate crisis recovery since countries in a monetary union do not have their own exchange rate. They have to adjust to crises through prices . Now this is obviously much easier to achieve when growth is strong at the euro area level and when inflation is in line with ECB objectives adjusting countries can quickly improve their relative prices . Export more to other members of the union . But if internal demand is too weak and inflation is too low . Such rebalancing across countries obviously becomes harder . And to some extent this is what we saw in the euro area after the crisis . As demand was stronger in our trading partners vulnerable countries had to reverse the imbalance mainly by increasing net exports outside the euro area . Now importantly strengthening internal growth is fully consistent with all countries maintaining their competitiveness . If countries boost growth by investing in productive areas of the economy it not only lifts demand in the short run it also provide provides the ingredients for maintaining competitiveness in the long run given the global challenges we are facing . So now let me move to the question of how do we do that and what can policies actually do to help achieve what I'm determined to say is not a dream . These challenges are common ones . So we must look at them with common solutions . And this involves my view moving towards a new European policy mix which has obviously a number of key elements not the first. And it's not because it's the only game in town . It shouldn't be. The first is monetary policy. And I'm saying that because it's my area of responsibility which will undergo a strategic review due to begin in the near future. More later on on that . But give us time to actually do the work in a cohesive way . The ECB is accommodative policy stance has been a key driver of domestic demand during the recovery and that stance remains in place as laid out in the ECB forward guidance. Monetary policy will continue to support the economy and respond to future risks in line with our price stability mandate . And yes we will continuously monitor the side effects of our policies . But it is clear that monetary policy could achieve its goal much faster and with much fewer side effects if other policies were also supporting growth . One key elements here is euro area fiscal policy which is not just about the aggregate stance of public spending but also about the composition of public spending . Investment is a particularly important part of the response to today's challenges because it is both today's demands and tomorrow's supply . And of course investments need to be countries specific . But there is today a cross cutting case for investment in a common future that is more productive more digital and certainly greener . If we look at public investment in the euro area it remains some way below its pre crisis level and the share of productive expenditure in total primary expenditure which is combination of infrastructure research and development and education . It has also dropped in nearly all euro area economies since the crisis added to which new investment needs arise . So both national policies and European programs like Invest EU have a role to play and the big budgetary instrument for convergence and competitiveness is also a good start . This tool acknowledges that even when governments need to consolidate their finances we collectively have a common interest in maintaining a sufficient level of public investment . But a stronger domestic economy also rests on higher business investment and for that raising productivity is equally important. Now firms to invest they need to be confident in future growth . The all advanced economies are facing a growth challenge. The euro area has been slower to embrace innovation and capitalize on the digital age. Much more so than others like the United States . This is also reflected in differences in total factor productivity which has risen by only half as much in the euro area as it has in the United States since 2000 . Now how do we close that gap. How do we not only catch up but overcome. That should be the ambition . Well we have a very potent tool at our disposal in the business sector and the corporate world. You often call it scale . Bring it back here. It means empowering the internal market . Completing the digital single market completing the capital markets union completing the single market in services can actually provide the impetus Europe needs to launch new and innovative firms and to spread new technologies faster around the union . These are building blocks that are not revolutionary ideas . They're not new committees new layers of this that or the other . But this is the European economy of the future and the projected gains from that are significant. New studies find that the full implementation of the services directive would lead to gains in the order of 380 billion euros . Completing the digital single market would yield annual benefits in the range of 170 billion euros . Added to which this growth dividend would actually help close the circle with public investment by ensuring that public debt is sustainable . Finally empowering our internal market also means completing our economic and monetary union. The design of EMU and in particular the balance between risk reduction and risk sharing is closely linked to the propensity to either save or spend or both . On the one hand a monetary union focused too much on risk sharing is likely to produce moral hazard and too little saving which harms the union as a whole. But on the other hand prioritizing risk reduction alone is likely to lead to the opposite problem. Excess saving and fragile growth as countries are forced to self insure by running persistent surpluses. In addition to all the benefits that president you have mentioned earlier that the solution to that famous paradox of thrift is actually institution or at least requires institution . Good institutions exist to ensure that people are not forced into actions that are rational at the individual level but self-defeating collectively . To completing the EMU is about finding the right balance the right tradeoff enough protection against moral hazard to discourage under saving but enough mutual insurance to prevent over saving . And in this way we could tap into new sources of growth that would otherwise be suppressed . And in the spirit of this conference that would truly represent a new approach to Europe . Time to conclude we face a global environment that is marked by uncertainty but I believe that if we approach this challenge in the right way it can also be a moment of opportunity . We have a unique possibility to respond to a changing and challenging world by investing in our future strengthening our common institutions and empowering the world's second largest economy . And all of this would be a game changer not just at home but in the world . It does require us to think differently about Europe . It will require political courage for politicians . It will also certainly not be easy . But as St. Francis of Assisi would have said stop by doing what is necessary then do what's possible. And suddenly you are doing the impossible and the dream comes through . Thank you .