. after a temporary slowdown in activity, the prospects for the coming year remain good. most institutions agree in predicting a growth rate of the order of 3 p. c. for the euro area and for belgium. though this is not as high as in 2000, it is still very satisfactory in historical terms. admittedly external uncertainty has recently increased with regard to the quality of the landing of the us economy. this might be somewhat abrupt. but a real recession remains improbable and the american authorities that are in charge of economic policy have already demonstrated their resolve to react without delay. above all, internal demand in the euro area, which represents 85 p. c. of final expenditure remains robust. in belgium, which is often regarded as indicative of future developments in the entire euro area, after the decline in both confidence of enterprises and consumers in september at the time of the oil crisis, confidence of enterprises has been rising again at the end of the year and consumer confidence has once more reached a historic peak. the latter is borne by a steady decline in unemployment and by job creation and also by the prospect of inflation coming down once more to a low level after the increase in the autumn. the oil price rise has not seriously disrupted growth prospects. we can call it a “ mini oil crisis ”. first, the rise, though rapid ( recovering from a position where prices had fallen excessively low ) was not comparable with the price increases of the 1970s. also, our economies have become less dependent on oil ( by the exploitation of new energy sources, the energy - saving measures which were implemented for a time and the shift in economic activity towards the service sector ). finally, the mistakes made in economic policy 25 years ago were fortunately not repeated. the suspension of index - linking of incomes – or in belgium, the use of an adjusted price index – has made it possible to avoid a new inflationary spiral of prices and wages and governments have limited the compensatory budget measures. the european central bank, which is now in charge of monetary policy, has done what it should. naturally, it could not prevent the oil price rise from causing inflation to worsen temporarily, but it had to prevent inflationary expectations from snowballing. that is why it raised interest rates several times last year. the aim of the european central bank is to maintain the confidence of the economic players in price stability in the medium term. and it is apparently succeeding because, despite the oil price rise, longter

; and issuance of discussion paper on climate risk and sustainable finance in july 2022. 12. the rbi has been ahead of the curve in creating an institutional architecture for new financial products and services. peer to peer ( p2p ) lending, account aggregator ( aa ) framework, unified payments interface ( upi ), trade receivables discounting system ( treds ) and allowing nbfcs to offer credit services over digital only platforms are instances of regulation helping the industry to grow in a systematic manner. customer centric initiatives, such as online dispute resolution ( odr ), integrated ombudsman scheme, retail direct scheme for g - sec investors, contactless and offline payments, payments infrastructure development fund ( pidf ) framework, card tokenization and e - mandates for recurring transactions have also been introduced in the recent period. we have also instituted a regulatory sandbox as well as an interregulatory and inter - operable regulatory sandbox for testing hybrid products. iii. deepening supervisory framework 13. supervision of banks, nbfcs and other financial entities in the rbi's regulatory domain is a very critical segment of the rbi's functioning. a great deal of work has been done in the recent years to deepen and sharpen our supervision. the thrust is now focussed more on identification of root causes of vulnerabilities in financial institutions and taking suitable measures for mitigation. 14. analytical capabilities are being enhanced by leveraging advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning ( ai / ml ). the data capabilities are also being upgraded. 15. the rbi remains vigilant about unsustainable growth, if any, in financial entities including risks emanating from technological developments. the recent guidelines on digital lending underscore the importance of facilitating responsible financial innovation. additionally, the challenges relating to cyber risk and climate related financial risks are getting appropriate policy focus. 16. let me sum up this segment of my speech by stating that india's banking system is well positioned to support economic growth with bank credit growing in double digits after a long hiatus. the rbi remains focused on fortifying the financial system against sudden shocks and ensuring macroeconomic and financial stability. 3 / 7 bis - central bankers'speeches iv. developing financial markets 17. the development of financial markets has been a key priority for the rbi. we have been undertaking calibrated reforms to develop vibrant and resilient financial markets. these reforms, among other things