Bank Negara Malaysia has therefore over the decades implemented initiatives to extend and improve the access of quality financial services to all segments of society. Advances in data collection and computation methodologies has been a crucial enabling factor in the progress made on financial inclusion not just in Malaysia, but also in many other countries. Unconventional information is now often used to assess a person’s credit worthiness when there is insufficient traditional information to build a credit score. This can range from electronic records of past utilities bill payments and even reputations on social media 3. This has led to vast improvements in access to credit for the previously excluded segment of population. Meanwhile, the compilation and analyses of detailed data on the financially underserved is a significant area that underpins international cooperative efforts to advance the global financial inclusion agenda. The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI)  3  For example, Lenddo in the Philippines, Mexico and Colombia. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  comprising of more than 90 member countries established the need for measurable national goals based on a set of quantifiable and time bound common indicators among its membership. These results serve as an objective basis for the AFI members to share experiences on the effectiveness of their policies. Statistical enhancements for a better tomorrow Great strides in the field of statistics have resulted in significant economic benefits. However, as the world further transforms, new challenges emerge and much more needs to be done going forward.

Wage increases are based on inflation being more permanently high, and in this situation companies do not see any major problems with continuing to raise prices – a price-wage spiral like the ones in the 1970s and 1980s starts. Fiscal policy focuses on broad-based support rather than on more targeted measures. This drives up aggregate demand in the economy as a whole and contributes to the high inflation rate becoming entrenched. Here, the interaction between fiscal policy and monetary policy again becomes inadequate.10 To curb inflation, the Riksbank must raise the policy rate considerably more than we now expect.11 Since households and companies are heavily indebted, this can have very significant negative repercussions. Even in such a worse scenario, inflation will eventually return to the target, but it will take longer and be considerably more painful for everyone in Sweden. Of course, it is not necessary for all of this to go wrong to  10 An illustration of the importance of interaction between fiscal policy and monetary policy is the market reac-  tions triggered by the UK Government's proposal for a mini-budget on 23 September. The proposal was judged to counteract the Bank of England's attempts to slow down inflation and was considered not credible. Interest rates rose significantly and the pound sterling weakened significantly. 11 See the Article “Alternative scenarios for inflation and monetary policy” in Monetary Policy Report November 2022 for examples of developments if inflation were to be higher than in the Riksbank’s forecast.