same time, the very substantial fall in commodity prices seen since the middle of 2008 should support real disposable income, and thus consumption, in the period ahead. most recently, there have been tentative signs of stabilisation in some survey data, albeit at historically low levels. these indications, however, require confirmation on a broader basis. in the view of the governing council, the outlook for the economy remains surrounded by an exceptionally high degree of uncertainty. overall, risks to economic growth remain clearly on the downside. they relate mainly to the potential for a stronger impact on the real economy of the turmoil in financial markets, as well as to concerns about the emergence and intensification of protectionist pressures and to possible adverse developments in the world economy stemming from a disorderly correction of global imbalances. over time, the euro area should reap the benefit of the effects of significant policy measures that have been decided upon over recent months to deal with the financial turmoil. they should help to restore trust in the financial system and to ease constraints on credit supply to companies and households. in order to ensure that such measures effectively support a sustainable recovery, it is of the utmost importance that they remain focused and temporary in nature so as to maintain a stability - oriented and medium - term perspective in macroeconomic policy - making. with regard to price developments, annual hicp inflation continued to decline in january 2009, falling to 1. 1 %, according to eurostat ’ s flash estimate, from 1. 6 % in december 2008. while no detailed breakdown for hicp developments in january is available as yet, the decline in headline inflation observed since the middle of 2008 primarily reflects the sharp falls in global commodity prices over this period, owing mainly to weak global demand. looking ahead, lower commodity prices and the prospect of weak demand confirm our assessment of mid - january that inflationary pressures in the euro area are diminishing. owing mainly to base effects stemming from the past behaviour of energy prices, headline annual inflation rates are projected to decline further in the coming months, possibly reaching very low levels at mid - year. however, also owing to base effects stemming from past energy price developments, inflation rates are expected to increase again in the second half of the year. accordingly, it is likely that hicp inflation rates will fluctuate sharply during 2009. such short - term volatility is, however, not relevant from a monetary policy perspective. looking over the policy - relevant medium - term horizon,

training and qualifications related to green and sustainable finance. 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches number three is developing a regulator - approved knowledge framework, or what we call the enhanced competency framework, to provide a more structured programme for banking practitioners to build their knowledge and expertise in green and sustainable finance. this is a major undertaking that calls for close collaboration between the public and private sectors. it requires more than just regulatory push. the developmental work is equally important to provide the necessary ecosystem that supports climate financing. indeed, hong kong has gone a long way in this regard and has firmly established its leadership role in the field of green and sustainable finance. as a snapshot, green and sustainable debt issuance in hong kong totalled us $ 57 billion in 2021. it accounted for one third of international issuance of green and sustainable bonds in asia. in 2022, we continued to see strong momentum, in particular in the area of green and sustainable loans. the vibrant green bond market is in part a result of the many breakthroughs made by the government green bond programme. since 2019, the hkma has assisted the government in issuing nearly us $ 16 billion worth of green bonds targeting both institutional and retail investors. we made use of each issuance to innovate and expand the suite of green bond products in terms of currencies, tenors and distribution channels, thus laying the foundation for other public and private sector issuers in the region. these issuances kept pushing the boundaries. just over the last few years, we made the world's largest retail green bond issuance, asia's largest esg bond issuance, and issued the world's first tokenised government green bond. we will continue to seek new breakthroughs. in the coming five years, planned annual issuance of government green bonds will increase from us $ 35 billion to us $ 65 billion. the mandate of this programme will be expanded to cover sustainable bonds as well. we will also consider how best to incorporate green and sustainability elements into a new infrastructure bond programme we are developing for the government. we will continue to press ahead with the experimentation in tokenised green bonds, leveraging blockchain technology to enhance the efficiency of bond issuance and transaction, and to explore real - time tracking and reporting of the environmental impact of projects funded by bond proceeds. and to promote financial inclusion, we are now looking into an arrangement to earmark a certain proportion of future green and infrastructure bond issuances for