“Without cooperation, we cannot get out of this pandemic. Vaccines are crucial, as is the fight against fake news ». It is a pragmatic Christine Lagarde that was heard today at the Carignano Theater in Turin, for a lectio magistralis organized by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, in collaboration with the “I Lincei per la Scuola” Foundation, Agnelli Foundation, Collegio Carlo Alberto and Treccani. The president of the European Central Bank (ECB) looks at the medium term with cautious optimism. Impossible, he remarked, to let our guard down at this moment.
The fog around the eurozone has not yet cleared. And resurgence of infections and Omicron variant may be two of the numerous variables capable of impacting economic growth in 2022. The others, as known for some time, are the flare-ups on energy prices, first of all, and of raw materials, consequently . However, as Lagarde al Carignano reiterated, these are temporary phenomena, destined to return to normalcy by the end of 2022. A little longer than expected at the end of the summer, but still manageable, according to Lagarde. But precisely for this reason it will be necessary to explain to European citizens how the surge in consumer prices will be managed. Which will keep the euro area company for a moderate period of time.
Turin, Lagarde: “In a world of ‘fake news’, politics must help to seek the truth”
A fundamental aspect in the “new world” that will derive from the Covid-19 pandemic, said the number one of the Frankfurt institution, is multiculturalism. To which, however, the key concept of inclusion must be added. Because it is true that digitization has been amplified and accelerated by the advent of SARS-CoV-2, but it is equally true that the gap between developed countries and the rest of the world is still high. See the vaccine issue, for example, on which Europe has shown that it has thrown its heart over the obstacle with speed. “Without this intense cooperation, we would not have progressed so quickly with the economic recovery and the introduction of vaccines,” explained Lagarde from the stage of the Savoy theater. Therefore, he stressed, “the fundamental lesson to be learned in this area is that we cannot afford to operate with a configuration that limits our work to distinct spheres. In a more interconnected global economy, intersectoral and multilateral cooperation is more important than ever to address complex challenges that transcend national borders. ” And the biomedical or health front are not the only ones who can have this kind of approach.
In fact, references to the ongoing climate crisis are not lacking. Or rather, the climate emergency. To which all countries, according to Lagarde, will have to respond unambiguously and suddenly. Specifically, the French central banker said, “the coronavirus pandemic has shown the speed with which risks can spread around the world. And it could just be a dress rehearsal for the kind of threat to our livelihoods that an overheating planet will pose to all of its inhabitants. ” A scenario that cannot fail to be considered also at a financial level. It is for this reason that Frankfurt has introduced bank stress tests also in terms of environmental sustainability. However, we must try to get in tune with people, with citizenship. Through three factors that can provide support, according to Lagarde: simplicity, framing of the problem and empathy. Starting with simplicity, Lagarde said, “we shouldn’t underestimate the public’s ability to evaluate and absorb factual evidence, but it must be presented in an accessible way.” An example of this has been seen on the topic of the climate emergency. “In an experiment in which US citizens who knew little about the scientific consensus on climate change were shown a simple pie chart illustrating the overwhelming consensus in favor of its artificial origins, their estimates in favor of the scientific evidence increased by almost. 20% – and this was with only one exposure, ”said the Eurotower tenant.
Meanwhile, inflation continues to worry. Germany’s preliminary figure for the current month, harmonized with the EU, was heavier than expected, + 6.0% yoy. And tomorrow Eurostat will publish the estimates for the whole eurozone. The forecast of the consensus of financial analysts sees an increase of 4.5% compared to November last year. But it is possible that the figure will end up approaching 5 percent. Not such a favorable scenario for Frankfurt ahead of the December meeting.