Robert Holzmann: Monetary policy in uncertain times - towards robustness and resilience

Welcome remarks by Dr Robert Holzmann, Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, for the 50th OeNB Economic Conference and the 60th SUERF Anniversary Conference, Vienna, 22 May 2023.

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

Central bank speech  | 
22 May 2023
by Robert Holzmann
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  |  9 pages

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Let me start by thanking you all for joining us, both virtually and in person. I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to the distinguished speakers, panelists and researchers who have agreed to honor us with their contributions to this event. A heartfelt "thank you" also goes to the OeNB and SUERF teams behind this event. In fact, this year's edition of our conference marks a double anniversary. In 2023, we celebrate 50 years of OeNB Annual Economics Conference and 60 years of SUERF. Our long-standing joint efforts are a testament to the strong cooperation which we have successfully pursued for several decades.

I must say I personally have come to believe in the "prophetic capacities" of OeNB-SUERF annual conferences. For last year's conference, we convened in late 2021 to decide on the main conference theme. Back then, we thought it would be wise to ask whether we would see a "return of inflation" in 2022. As you know, reality sadly answered this question extremely clearly. If you remember, in my opening speech last year I even had to replace the question mark in the conference title with an exclamation mark!

For this year's event, we came together a couple of months ago and concluded it would be a good idea to organize a conference focusing on how to render our monetary policy more "robust and resilient" to shocks – only to experience significant turmoil on financial markets in spring. So, I  am asking myself: what will come next? Perhaps we need to think about formulating more positive and optimistic conference topics. In any case, I should emphasize that our "prophecies" are purely Delphic in nature, and certainly not intended as Odyssean.