ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Artificial intelligence “is destined to transform productivity and growth, to change labour markets and businesses and to redefine financial markets and payment systems” and “central banks cannot remain on the margins: our economic models, supervisory instruments and payment infrastructures have been designed primarily for a different technological environment. We must understand the current changes, distinguish structural changes from temporary effects and adapt our tools accordingly.” Thus the governor of the Bank of Italy Fabio Panetta in his speech at the tenth Annual Research Conference ‘The response of central banks to future challenges: resilience, credibility and innovation’, organized by the National Bank of Ukraine and the Narodowy Bank Polski in Kiev.
On artificial intelligence “the United States seems to move faster than Europe, but the gap is not fixed in stone. Although Europe will not become one of the leading artificial intelligence developers, it has the potential to adopt and exploit these technologies with the same speed as other advanced economies,” he continues. “The Bank of Italy’s staff estimates indicate that countries integrating artificial intelligence faster could ensure a lasting productivity advantage, expand their share of global markets and attract more investment and capital. Others would risk seeing their relative competitiveness diminished. The differences in productivity and demand would also affect trade flows, capital flows and relative prices.”.
In the short term, Panetta adds, “investments linked to artificial intelligence are already providing a strong impetus to demand, especially in cutting-edge technological economies: it is also generating a strong demand for processing capacity, energy, specialized work and other poor inputs. As long as the offer does not follow, these pressures could increase relative prices and inflation.”
For Italy, Panetta explains, “the research of the Bank of Italy suggests that a widespread adoption of artificial intelligence could increase the productivity of work by more than 1 percentage point per year.” According to Panetta, the effect on productivity could result in “a stronger growth and lower inflation”, but “the timing, the scale and transmission of these effects are highly uncertain. Moreover, a positive shock on the side of the offer does not operate in isolation: income influence, investments, wealth and expectations, and therefore also aggregate demand.”.
– photos: Ipa Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
