which should be certainly welcomed. in this context, on december 17 2018 we signed a memorandum of understanding with the macedonian banking association ( mba ), covering wider scope in the field of financial education and financial inclusion. within this cooperation ( besides the organization of the money quiz ), we plan joint activities in coordination with banks, which should provide better information to the population and greater availability of banking services, which would enable larger inclusion of the population and use of the advantages banking services provide. at the same time, we plan activities that should increase the awareness of the population about possible risks in the banking services domain as a very important aspect for the bank clients. we especially welcome the initiative for organizing the european money quiz for the youth of our country, which will be organized for the first time this year, hoping that it will become a traditional one. this way, we believe we will encourage greater commitment among young people on financial issues, and consequently, it will contribute to raise the level of their financial literacy. in 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches this context, i would like to emphasize that the national bank supports the process of preparing students by supplying them with various educational materials, by holding today ’ s training for the teaching staff, and later by organizing special preparatory activities for the national winners. it is of great importance that the european money quiz, an initiative of the european banking federation, unites us all, the financial regulators and the banks, mes and the educational institutions in the country, in order to attain a very important goal, that is improvement of the skills of the youngest in the area of finance, which contributes to improving their knowledge and ability to face future working and life challenges. at the end, it certainly contributes towards having educated and capable youth, with wide knowledge in the contemporary era, ready to grow into a capable work force, a driver of the economy in the coming years. what is particularly pleasing to me about the preparations of the european money quiz is its massiveness. it is noteworthy that the number of registered classes is much higher than expected. it is assessed that about 3, 000 students aged 13 – 15 years will participate in the internal testing phase. such an approach envisaging testing of entire classes, enables all these students to become familiar with the issues of financial education, with aspects related to the operations of the central bank, commercial banks, securities markets. it is a significant benefit, which is probably, the goal of the initiator – the more massive scope

the past several months. as i just said, chile ’ s output, and especially domestic demand, has grown above expectations. some progress has been made abroad, but the risks derived from the eurozone crisis are still present. in this context, headline inflation has fluctuated substantially in recent months, due to one - time events associated with supply shocks. core inflation – discounting foodstuffs and energy – has declined slightly to near 2 percent y - o - y. the board, continuing with what has been the tone throughout the year, held the monetary policy interest rate at 5 percent. domestic situation as of november, y - o - y cpi inflation was 2. 1 percent, after rising to almost 3 percent in october ( figure 1 ). y - o - y growth in nominal wages has remained roughly constant in the 6 % to 7 % range, although with differences across sectors. output, meanwhile, grew 5. 7 percent y - o - y in the third quarter of 2012, flat from the previous quarter, but more than expected. the economic expectations survey ( ees ) of august – available at the closing of the previous monetary policy report – forecast 4. 6 percent growth for said quarter. the greater increase was due to better performance in general. however, output ’ s velocity of expansion dropped from 8. 3 to 5. 7 percent annualized. in the baseline scenario, the board estimates that gdp will grow 5. 5 percent this year. this projection is higher than the ceiling we estimated in september, with a similar revision as has been made in private forecasts. still, both our forecasts and private ones have experienced sustained upward revisions in the past year ( figure 2 ). on the domestic spending side, third quarter growth ( i. e. 8. 0 percent y - o - y ) largely surpassed second - quarter figures, however swollen by some specific factors. while every component of expenditure posted higher increases, the large increase in machinery and equipment investment is worth noting : 19. 9 percent y - o - y. the acceleration of domestic spending amplified the negative current account balance, which in the third quarter went to 2. 9 percent of the gdp accumulated in the last year. the baseline scenario assumes that the deficit will end the year 2012 at 3. 8 percent of gdp, exceeding september ’ s forecast of 3. 2 percent. meanwhile, the national financial system has operated normally in a context of strong investment and favorable external credit conditions. household credit has continued to grow