I am very pleased to welcome you to the eighth Karl Brunner Distinguished Lecture. We are delighted and honoured that Professor Kristin Forbes accepted our invitation. I would like to thank the ETH Zurich and its President, Joël Mesot, for their hospitality.

For decades, the exchange rate has played a key role for the Swiss economy and for the Swiss National Bank’s monetary policy.

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In September 2022, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) raised its policy rate back into positive territory. At the same time, it adopted a new approach to implementing monetary policy in the money market. This approach employs two levers: the tiered remuneration of reserves, also referred to as reserve tiering, and reserve absorption.

As part of its contribution to the stability of the financial system, the Swiss National Bank acts as lender of last resort. In this role, it makes emergency liquidity assistance available to banks when, in crisis situations, they need substantial liquid funds which they are no longer able to obtain on the market.

It is with great pleasure that my colleague Thomas Moser and I welcome you to this year’s Swiss National Bank (SNB) Money Market Event in Geneva. We are very glad that so many of you have joined us this evening, be it on site or remotely.

It is my pleasure to welcome you to this high-level conference on global risk, uncertainty and volatility. Thank you all for accepting our invitation to join the discussions. I am very pleased to see such a distinguished group of central bank officials and academics. I would like to thank our colleagues at the Bank for International Settlements and the Federal Reserve Board for working together with us in organising this event.

In the recent past, the political and economic backdrop has changed dramatically. Inflation is far too high almost everywhere, and central banks are raising their policy interest rates at a time when stocks of government debt are large. In some places, central bank independence is being publicly called into question.

I am very pleased to welcome you all to the sixth Karl Brunner Distinguished Lecture. The Swiss National Bank established this annual lecture series in honour of the Swiss economist Karl Brunner, one of the leading monetary economists of the last century. Our aim with these lectures is to reach a broad audience, and to contribute to the public debate on issues related to central banking and economics more broadly.

I welcome you all to the ceremony of the Carl Menger Award, given by the Verein für Socialpolitik. I do so in the name of the sponsors of the award, namely the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and the Swiss National Bank, as well as on behalf of the selection committee.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has fundamentally changed the geopolitical situation. However, it also has far-reaching economic consequences and poses the question as to whether the integration of the global economy will decrease again.

In many ways, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is unprecedented. The economic shock has been global and massive, affecting both economic supply and demand simultaneously. To mitigate the economic impact, the crisis response has had to be swift and innovative – including in Switzerland.