success of the small and medium enterprise sector undoubtedly lies at the heart of the realisation of vision 2030. the four benefits provide us with a solution to kenyans who view banks as expensive, have barriers to entry and have high transaction costs of maintaining accounts. what kenyans need is access to bank accounts where they can save and transact easily. this move by equity indeed answers to that challenge. the central bank welcomes such innovations by the banking sector and is committed to the creation of an enabling regulatory environment towards this end. i would therefore urge the banking sector to seek innovative ways of leveraging on existing technologies and infrastructures to provide affordable and inclusive financial services to kenyans. mr. chairman, kenya can not develop, or even realize the aspirations of vision 2030, if the majority of kenyans at the bottom of the economic pyramid lack access to financial services such as savings, credit, payment / remittance systems, money transfers, insurance and pension. the example equity bank has shown here today takes us steps towards realization of this goal. these are steps to emulate for the growth and development of our financial sector. ladies and gentlemen : it is now my honour and pleasure to declare the equity bank mobile phone banking service officially launched. thank you.

we have a low level of external debt compared to our high level of international reserves and are running large current account surpluses consistently in the years preceding the crisis. therefore, our overall external position is strong. unlike other countries in the region, which have lower international reserves or higher external debts, they are more vulnerable to these swings in investor sentiment and resumption of risk - off trade. this transmission channel is thus not very worrisome for us as we are in a good position to handle capital outflows given our external strength. the second channel is the impact on the real economy from trade and investment, both direct and indirect. the direct channel is very small as the share of thai exports to russia and ukraine are only about 0. 4 percent of total thai exports, and the same applies to investment flows. the main issue we are more concerned about is the indirect effects that the situation will lead to supply chain disruptions or other impacts on the world economy that will have a knock - on effect on thailand. from the demand side, the global economy is going solidly in the major economies like the us and europe in the period leading into the conflict. we hence perceive that the recovery of the global economy is still quite strong and intact. although the russia - ukraine conflict will dampen the global economy, the situation is not likely to derail the recovery. it is important to note that the russia - ukraine conflict is a huge supply shock caused by commodity prices and certain selected materials that are important in the russia and ukraine export space. overall, it is still not a global economic or financial crisis. it may look like a crisis in russia, but the spread to other places seems to be limited, for example, the contagion of the risk that it translates to a european economic crisis is not very likely. that is another reason why both the direct and indirect impact of the russia - ukraine conflict on the thai economy via trade and investment will not be substantial. the third and the main transmission channel of the impact of the russia - ukraine conflict on thailand is through inflation. the surge in commodity prices has resulted in a much higher inflation outlook in thailand. we will be releasing our public estimate of the headline inflation later after our monetary policy committee meets. even though the headline inflation had jumped to 5. 3 % last month, we view that it is still manageable in thailand because it is concentrated in certain key segments, like energy and raw foods. therefore, inflation has not spread as broadly