state bank of pakistan “ improvements in pakistan ’ s economy and opportunities for investment ” governor ’ s address for bloomberg economic forum november 23, 2016 ; karachi distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, assalam - o - alaikum! i would like to begin by thanking bloomberg for organising this discussion, and for inviting me to speak on the improvements in pakistan ’ s economy and the opportunities for investment these improvements have opened up. as pakistan enters the next phase of its growth story, i feel that it is important to take a dispassionate look at the past three years, and see how far along we have come, as a country. a review of some key macroeconomic indicators is in order here. from fy09 to fy13, real gdp growth averaged just 2. 8 percent ; this increased to above 4 percent over the next three years. in fact, real gdp growth touched an eight - year high in fy16. meanwhile, the government ’ s ongoing fiscal consolidation efforts limited the average budget deficit to 4. 6 percent in fy16, against 8. 2 percent in fy13. moreover, the country ’ s foreign exchange reserves continue on their rising trajectory : the country ’ s fx reserves are now hovering around us $ 24 billion, which are enough to finance over seven months of the country ’ s import bill. to put this in context, just three years back, our reserves couldn ’ t even finance three months of imports! at this point, you might be tempted to ask, what has driven this improvement? the answer is prudent economic policies – on the monetary, fiscal and industrial fronts. sbp ’ s decision to keep interest rates at record lows encouraged the private sector to opt for bank loans and finance key projects. on the external front, the support lent by the sizable reduction in global oil prices figured prominently, and helped offset export sluggishness. remittance growth during the period also remained strong and financed the trade deficit to a great extent. and pakistan ’ s continued engagement with the imf and other ifis, and its re - entry into the international capital market, ensured that the country was not only able to easily make its fx payments, but also accumulate foreign exchange. at the same time, the government ’ s sharp focus on addressing the energy constraints has stimulated industrial activities. besides, as you are all well aware, the security situation in the country, including karachi, has improved considerably. these improvements on

toshiro muto : how do central banks make decisions? – monetary policy by committee summary of a speech by mr toshiro muto, deputy governor of the bank of japan, at the spring meeting of the japan society of monetary economics, chiba, 12 may 2007. * * * introduction i am honored to have this opportunity to address a society with such a long - standing tradition. today, i would like to elaborate on central banks'decisionmaking process, especially that by committee. although policy changes by the bank of japan attract a lot of attention, i believe that the decisionmaking process, in which policy is decided by a majority vote of the policy board, is not widely understood. for example, according to the results of the 23rd opinion survey on the general public's views and behavior conducted by the bank in june 2005, over half of the respondents answered that they had never heard that " monetary policy aimed at maintaining price stability is conducted based on decisions made at the bank's monetary policy meetings. " the bank has adopted a committee structure in which decisions are made by a majority vote of the members of the policy board. based on the bank of japan law, which was revised in 1997 and came into effect in april 1998, the policy board – the highest decisionmaking body of the bank – decides on a wide range of matters, not only those related to monetary policy but also those related to financial stability and the payment and settlement system. policy board meetings where monetary policy is deliberated and decided are called monetary policy meetings ( mpms ). many other central banks have also adopted a committee structure in making monetary policy decisions, such as the federal open market committee ( fomc ) of the federal reserve system for the united states, the governing council of the european central bank ( ecb ) for the euro area, and the monetary policy committee ( mpc ) of the bank of england ( boe ) for the united kingdom. i. the quiet revolution : decisionmaking by committee a. overview one of the issues in which academic researchers have shown an increasing interest in recent years is monetary policy decisionmaking by committee. professor alan blinder at princeton university, a former vice chairman of the board of governors of the federal reserve system during chairman greenspan's era, has highlighted a " quiet revolution " in central banking practice in the past decade : namely, changes in the areas of decisionmaking by committee, transparency, and communication with the market. 1 decisionmaking by committee requires