to weather the storm in an unprecedented way for our history, both for exogenous and endogenous reasons. in the past few months, we took strong measures to ensure monetary and financial stability. we noticed a marked mis - alignment in the demand for money which activated the warning signs on our control panel. in other words, there was a diversion in one of the variables from values provided by our scheme in the base scenario. private sector deposits experienced a temporary decline of 8 % in less than a month during may. to put it in perspective, in three months, deposits fell by 17 % during the tequila effect. taking all this into account, and having assessed the costs and benefits of using each instrument, we focused all our efforts in restoring money market equilibrium. this is no more than a professional response based on the risk management approach applied to the argentine monetary policy. the central bank surgically and sequentially implemented a set of ten measures. first, we strengthened the demand for argentine pesos and once the foreign exchange market was relatively calm, we undertook actions to reinstate liquidity, so as to ensure financial stability and the well functioning of the payment system. in fact, we adopted the following prudential scheme : 1 ) first, we adapted our operations in the repo market : we established a scheme to offer liquidity at a fixed ( up to 3 billion ar pesos ) and a variable ( badlar ) interest rate. by offering a wider variety of options, we ensured the availability of resources in appropriate conditions to provide liquidity to the system. 2 ) we renewed only partially central bank securities coming due and repurchased some others with near term maturities. 3 ) we extended the limits to operate in the futures market, both for the central bank and some of its counterparties. 4 ) we allowed the reference foreign exchange rate for futures and forward transactions between the central bank and its counterparties to be settled by the emerging market traders association ( emta ). this measure is clearly a vote of confidence in our approach. 5 ) we begun to do open market operations through government securities market by purchasing instruments that can be liquidated in pesos or dollars in the secondary market. this mechanism worked as an additional tool to provide liquidity beyond the banking sector, and at the same time, enabled the intervention on the different segments of the yield curve, avoiding distortions in its temporal structure. 6 ) to alleviate the seasonal effects on the traditionally illiquid month of july

, we unified the financial institutions ’ minimum cash requirement for june and july in a single bimonthly term. this improves the institutions ’ liquidity management. 7 ) we developed a mechanism for us dollar - denominated repo supply. this was an additional way to ensure dollar supply at times when the dollar increased its share in investors ’ portfolios and when it was necessary to lower depreciation expectations. 8 ) the central bank started to participate in the ndf market with operations up to 12 months and with counterparties whose credit quality was not lower than a -. 9 ) we opened a new repo window to include as collateral certain instruments ( bogar and guaranteed loans ) that cannot be used in traditional repo operations. this enabled institutions that had no significant central bank bills and notes positions in their portfolios to access our liquidity provision mechanisms. 10 ) finally, we offered new maturity options for reverse repos, readjusting the cost in line with the new term structure. that is, the system was adapted through a set of ten measures to stabilize the foreign exchange market and then correct the remaining monetary and financial variables. in a nutshell, we have taken all the necessary steps to ensure full systemic liquidity in pesos and dollars. and, as a result, fluctuations in financial variables were limited, and the real economy was not negatively affected. this is not a change on our policies. it is the same framework implemented in the last few years but facing a different scenario. the current situation is a stress test for the strength of this strategy, and ratifies the consistency and validity of its fundamental pillars. to sum up, conferences such as this one, featuring many dear colleagues with whom we usually interact in seminars around the world in a peculiar time like the current one, are breeding ground for analyzing the impact of the crisis and its scenarios. moreover, given the current international economic scenario, history is providing the money and banking conference with a unique opportunity, through a better understanding of reality, to influence policy redesign both in the emerging and the developed world. welcome to all of you and thank you very much.