Emmanuel Laborde: Hello.
Isabelle Mateos Y Lago: Hello.
Emmanuel Laborde: We have three minutes to draw your portrait. That's quite a challenge!
A lot to say in such a short time. We will make choices. First, a simple question: who are you? Could you describe your career through three key moments?
Isabelle Mateos Y Lago: First key moment, in 1999, it doesn't make us feel any younger. I began at the Ministry of Economy and then left for Washington.
I worked with the French Delegate at the International Monetary Fund and at the World Bank. I discovered how foreign high officials perceive our country, France, and above all, Europe.
And I realised everything we have in common in Europe. Things we tend to hide to ourselves in all European countries being too much focused on differences which are superficial.
And I also realised that for all these high officials from other parts of the world Europe is not at all in the centre of the map.
Emmanuel Laborde: Hence the interest of having an outside view. After 1999, let's go to 2015. A new sector, a new country. You flew from the US to the UK.
Isabelle Mateos Y Lago: That's was big change, indeed. I joined the private sector.
For a very long time, I thought that you needed to work in the public sector to serve the public interest.
And little by little, I realised that it is almost the opposite.
A private-sector company, in order to thrive, must answer public needs as well as possible.
If it fails to do so, it disappears. It is replaced by another one.
It is a rather healthy process.
Emmanuel Laborde: After these 25 years in English-speaking countries, you returned to France. What is the feeling of returning to your home country?
Isabelle Mateos Y Lago: Interestingly, that's a cultural shock. But it is easier to absorb than the previous ones. I'm like a smartphone, so to speak, that has returned to its initial settings after pressing the reset button. I regained my old reflexes and all the implicit codes quite spontaneously. But with the added benefit of my foreign experiences, of course. I hope it will really help me to add value in my interactions with my colleagues and the bank's customers.
Emmanuel Laborde: You are Group Chief Economist at BNP Paribas since the third of September. What does it mean to you?
Isabelle Mateos Y Lago: After having much listened to my colleagues and the bank’s customers, we clearly have two objectives.
First, we have to continue to bring perspectives to bank businesses' executives but also to our customers on the current state of the economy so they take better decisions each day. But equally important, we have to give them strategic insights on underlying trends that impact the economy.
The European economy, first. But as the European economy is widely open, the situation in other parts of the world that weighs on the situation in Europe.
Emmanuel Laborde: Let's focus on the news, on our editorial choices. I remind you that this program is recorded before the US elections. According to you, what is the current state of the economy? What are the topics to be discussed?
Isabelle Mateos Y Lago: This is a complex era.We have new geopolitical issues. Climate change, ageing populations, as well, are major concerns.
They issues are outside the economic field but they have a significant impact.
So there is a lot of uncertainty. But we do have strong convictions on a few topics. First, the decrease in interest rates. We feel pretty certain that we are about to see a decrease in the interest rates of central banks. Second topic on which we have solid opinions, the slowdown in Chinese economy. It will deeply impact the global economy. These two topics will be discussed in the following segments.
Emmanuel Laborde: Thanks a lot.
Isabelle Mateos Y Lago: Thanks.
Emmanuel Laborde: We'll talk about rate cuts with Hélène Baudchon.
