Stanley Fisher Warns of Regional Instability at 2011 Herzliya Conference
In a Keynote Address, on the third day of the 2011 Herzliya Conference, Professor Stanley Fisher, Governor of the Bank of Israel assured his audience that Israel has a, “strong, solid, economy, which is impressive,” despite the geo-political situation which “has changed two weeks ago”.
He emphasized this point relating to the many periods of political instability that the State of Israel faced, providing examples such as, ‘the break of the Hamas and the PLO’ and the ‘global recession’. Referring to the latter, Fisher declared, ‘throughout this entire period, the economy was hardly harmed, and certainly much less than other Western countries’.
In maintaining Israel’s economy, Fisher stated, ‘we need to manage our economy in such a way that if there is a future crisis, we will be able to deal with them from a position of robustness, rather than a position of weakness’.
He added that part of this maintenance would stem from ‘having a strong banking system’. One of the steps that the Bank of Israel will need to take to achieve this is “to maintain price stability” at a ”low rate of inflation”. However, he explained that the Bank of Israel cannot act alone, and the government needs to ‘preserve the budget’.
Riding on his optimistic outlook of having a “strong economy”, he encouraged Israeli citizens to “behave responsibility” because, “we don’t have money to waste” and “we must preserve what we have”.
about: The Herzliya Conference is the flagship of the Institute of Policy and Strategy (IPS) at the Lauder School of Government of IDC Herzliya. The Herzliya Conference addresses Israel’s national agenda by encouraging public debate and influencing the country’s public policy planning. This is achieved through convening Israeli and international elite policy makers, conducting cutting edge research, fostering a global network of contacts in a public forum by attracting the best and the brightest to take part in the conference and its discussions.