creditor - based statistics. a common tactic, seen both in hong kong and later in south africa, was for hedge funds to sell short the currency as well as a long - duration investment ( e. g. shares and bonds ) whose value was particularly sensitive to short - term interest rates. if the monetary authority supported the currency by raising interest rates, the speculators profited from the domestic play. if the monetary authorities let the currency slide, the profit was on the currency play. see bis ( 1998a ), chapter v. regulate this kind of activity at all types of institutions, in turn raising the issue of how to prevent it from simply moving offshore. what does seem to have been agreed in the international community is that it would be desirable to have more information about the activities of highly leveraged investors who are internationally active. not only does this seem prima facie a good thing, but some authorities also consider such information a fair counterpart to the provision of more information by public sector authorities about their own off - balance sheet activities. 18 currently, three avenues are being actively explored within the basle community. the basle supervisors are primarily concerned about the health of banks and wish to be assured that the loans made to highly leveraged institutions are subject to the proper kind of credit analysis. a subgroup of the bcbs ( the brockmeijer working group ) has already published two documents, one outlining deficiencies in past banking practices and the other suggesting guidelines for good practice in the future. 19 the cgfs has two initiatives under way. one is a reprise ( under the same chairman ) of the 1994 fisher report20 which acted as a catalyst for enhancements to disclosure practices by financial institutions in relation to market and credit risk exposures arising from their trading activities, including those involving off - balance sheet instruments. the primary objective of this exercise is to encourage further improvements in disclosure so as to ensure that market participants have an adequate basis for an appreciation of the risks they are running in dealing with, investing in or lending to, financial institutions. the second cgfs initiative is to examine what kind of aggregate information about exposures would help to improve the functioning of markets, taking as a starting - point the bis international banking statistics. having adequate knowledge about short - term capital flows is one thing. establishing an exchange regime to minimise their disruptive effects, while maintaining their longer - run efficiency benefits, is quite another. as already stated, a country cannot have completely liberalised

and employment. we still have to make a huge effort and try to reconcile stability with growth, employment and equity. much progress has been made in this discussion and that is what we want to foster from the central bank. it may sound anecdotal, but i consider it relevant to mention that last week we at the central bank made the decision to change our monetary program. when making this decision, we were faithful to this view of economic problems : monetary variables cannot be independent of the real economy. monetary affairs have to be consistent with a vigorously growing country that gradually distributes the fruits borne. this is one of the challenges : leaving behind those watertight compartments where monetary affairs are detached from the real economy. perhaps conventional thinking, the monetarist system, is so embedded in argentina that it makes it difficult to deal with the stability issues related to the challenges of a still developing country which has a long way to go as regards growth, income distribution, job recovery and upward wage correction. that was what we did : we adjusted the monetary program so as not to sterilize growth and for it to be consistent with these objective data of the argentine economy. we aspire to break those watertight compartments and put the central bank of argentina back at the core of macroeconomic coordination. the aim is to be in line with what has been done by successfully developed countries. we must work very hard to identify what these countries have done and keep doing to promote their development and protect their own interests rather that what they say they have done. in this sense, it is by no means a small detail that this is the first time a president of argentina has joined us in this money conference. for that reason, i would like to thank mrs. president for honoring us with her presence today in a conference where we intend to have a discussion without conceptual categorizations, with a high degree of pragmatism and, most importantly, with the intellectual honesty needed to raise these issues. i am confident that throughout this conference there will be very good ideas shedding light on the path we have walked in argentina in recent years which engages us all in strengthening development and equity. thank you very much.