Ignazio Visco: Bank of Italy - The Global Foundation

Dinner address by Mr Ignazio Visco, Governor of the Bank of Italy, at the Rome Roundtable 2018, Rome, 15 June 2018.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Your Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to welcome you to the Bank of Italy. I would like to thank Steve Howard, Secretary General of The Global Foundation, for bringing together so many distinguished guests to discuss the state of the world and how it might be improved. I also thank Jock Murray, Chairman of The Global Foundation, for his kind introduction. I am honoured to set the stage for the keynote address by His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Unfortunately, I could not attend the sessions of the first day of this meeting. I regret it very much because you have been addressing themes of fundamental importance for the global economy. These themes appear remote from the main tasks of central bankers, preserving price and financial stability, but at a deeper level all the issues are connected and we should not lose sight of the major changes that affect our societies and economies.

In January 2017, Pope Francis' address to The Global Foundation inspired the main theme of today's and tomorrow's discussion. He stigmatized "an ideology of capitalism" that shows "little or no interest for the realities of marginalization, exploitation and human alienation, a lack of concern for the great numbers of people still living in conditions of grave material and moral poverty, and a blind faith in the unbridled development of market forces alone" and invited us "to discern just ways of attaining a globalization that is 'cooperative', and thus positive, as opposed to the globalization of indifference".