– certainly ambitious, but realistic all the same - have formed the basis for successive governments ’ budget plans. these recommendations go even further than strict respect for eu rules, since they take into account future requirements stemming from the ageing population. moreover, the high council of finance, which also comprises experts appointed by the communities and regions, contributes to ensuring the necessary coordination between the various levels of power that make up the country ’ s system of government. it effectively transposes the general objectives for all the public authorities into specific recommendations for each entity. these are given a formal setting in cooperation agreements between the federal government and the communities and regions, a sort of internal stability pact. we could look at it as an example of good practice. besides, the beneficial role of the nai and the high council of finance in preparing the ground for consolidation of public finances is acknowledged in recent imf and ec publications. 2. unlike the budgetary procedures, the automatic wage - indexation mechanism used in belgium meets with almost unanimous disapproval by the international institutions, because of the nominal rigidities it risks causing. along with luxembourg, belgium is certainly in good company here, but we are quite isolated among the european countries, even if several of them have partial indexation systems. are belgium and luxembourg right to go it alone or not? in my view, in the belgian case the question calls for a carefully weighed - up response. the wage - indexation mechanism has been around for a long time in belgium. the first collective agreements on the subject were concluded as early as 1920, notably in the mining industry, and, after a wage freeze during the second world war, they were widely reinstated at the end of it. the wage - indexation mechanism has become an essential element of a wide social consensus, but at one time, it also risked undermining business competitiveness. index - linking was also temporarily suspended following the devaluation of the belgian franc in 1982. the need to keep a competitive edge led to a thorough reform in 1994. the government laid down a new requirement for the so - called health index to be used as a reference for indexation rather than the general consumer price index. a number of products like tobacco, alcoholic drinks, petrol and diesel are not taken into account in calculating the health index. in this way, any increase in taxes and excise duties on these products, especially tobacco and petrol, is no longer passed onto wages and prices and, on the other hand, second

no outstanding libor - based derivatives in our investment portfolio by the end of 2021. moreover, from end - 2021, we will exclude all libor - based floating - rate notes from the list of collateral eligible for snb repos when implementing monetary policy. these steps will cut any remaining ties between the snb ’ s monetary and investment policy and libor. page 3 / 5 zurich, 17 december 2020 andrea m. maechler news conference charts page 4 / 5 zurich, 17 december 2020 andrea m. maechler news conference page 5 / 5