in international transactions. indeed, the evolution of invoicing practices will be slow and will depend among others on the usual practices in the field of price setting on the international markets and in particular on the commodities and on the oil markets. the almost exclusive use of the us dollar stems from both custom and ease as these products are quoted in dollars, a fact which will not be easy to change. the international transactions denominated in dollars are therefore four times higher than us exports. while the relative share of the euro as a payment currency is bound to increase, this evolution will in all probability be slow and progressive. as an investment and financing currency, the euro already plays an important part on international capital markets. during the first two quarters of this year, the share of euro denominated issues in the total of international issues has by far exceeded the aggregate part of its preceding currencies. in the first six months of this year, new euro denominated bond issues have surpassed by almost 50 % the amount issued in the first six months of 1998 in the currencies that now participate in the euro. the international issues in euro now stand for more than 40 % of the total amount issued on the international markets, which is a proportion that comes close to the one of us dollar denominated bond issues. several factors which i have already referred to can explain this evolution : the financing of operations with regard to mergers and acquisitions, the bigger size and greater liquidity of euro markets and the euro issues undertaken by several major countries wishing to diversify the distribution of their foreign currency debt. given the international importance of the new currency, it is not surprising that the development of the euro exchange rate has attracted considerable attention despite the fact that the level of the exchange rate is less important for the euro area as a whole than it was for each of the participating countries before the start of emu, in particular for a small country like belgium. for this reason the level of the euro exchange rate is not in itself a precise policy objective of the eurosystem. nevertheless it is an important indicator in its monetary policy strategy. in the first part of the year the relative weakness of economic activity in the euro area compared with the high growth in the us has affected the euro exchange rate. but now, with the good prospects for an economic upturn in the euro area, the firm commitment of the eurosystem to internal price stability, which constitutes the best basis for the strength of the euro in the

the constraints. consequently, considerable flux in output and prices is common, imposing large losses on farmers and potentially imprisoning them in a circle of indebtedness with disturbing frequency. therefore, in the absence of coordinated and sustained efforts to put in place elements of a virtuous cycle of upliftment, loan waivers have periodically emerged as a quick fix to ease farmers ’ distress. 5. earlier, the union budget 2014 - 15 had put in place a scheme under which five lakh joint liability groups of ‘ bhoomi heen kisan ’ ( landless farmers ) will be financed through the nabard in order to augment flow of credit to landless farmers cultivating land as tenant farmers, oral lessees or share croppers and small / marginal farmers as well as other poor individuals taking up farm activities, off - farm activities and non - farm activities. the experience of catalysing bank credit flows to agriculture and expanding the panoply of subventions begs the question : are we substituting credit for other policy interventions? indeed, this issue prompted, in 2014, rbi ’ s expert committee to revise and strengthen the monetary policy framework to recommend a revisit of the need for subventions on interest rates for lending to agriculture. 7. a brief history of farm loan waivers in india may be in order. the first major nationwide farm loan waiver was undertaken in 1990 and the cost to the national exchequer was around 10, 000 crores, which works out to 50, 557 crores at current prices using the gdp deflator. the second major waiver was under the agricultural debt waiver and debt relief scheme ( adwd ) of 2008 amounting to 52, 000 crores ( 0. 9 per cent of gdp ) or 81, 264 crores at current prices using the gdp deflator. unlike the 1990 scheme that aimed at providing blanket relief to all farmers up to a certain loan amount, the 2008 scheme waived debt for certain classes of cultivators1. in 2014, andhra pradesh and telangana announced farm loan waiver of 24, 000 crores and 17, 000 crores, respectively. beginning with tamil nadu in 2016, domino effects have spread in 2017 to several states and the total cost of loan waivers announced amounts to around 1, 30, 000 crores ( 0. 8 per cent of gdp ). i am sure that the proceedings today will dwell upon the details characterising each scheme. therefore, i will move