Mario Vella: Progressing safely in a riskier world

Address by Dr Mario Vella, Governor of the Central Bank of Malta, at the annual dinner of the Institute of Financial Services, Saint Julian's, 19 November 2019.

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

Dear President and Members of the Committee of the Institute of Financial Services (IFS) Malta, personally and on behalf of the Board of the Central Bank of Malta, I thank you for this opportunity to address this distinguished audience and through them the financial services industry. Dear Minister, distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends.

Last year, I observed that the external environment was becoming less supportive of activity. Incoming data confirm this view. Global GDP growth has continued to weaken. According to the IMF's October 2019 World Economic Outlook, global growth in 2019 is projected to be 3.0%, the lowest rate since 2009 and 0.5 percentage points less than its January 2019 projection.

A number of factors are reflected in this state of affairs, a fluid state of affairs that is characterised by high volatility and uncertainty, a state of affairs that is anything but steady.