tiff macklem : opening statement before the house of commons standing committee on finance opening statement by mr tiff macklem, governor of the bank of canada, before the house of commons standing committee on finance, ottawa, ontario, 2 may 2024. * * * good morning. i'm pleased to be here with senior deputy governor carolyn rogers to discuss our recent policy announcement and the bank of canada's monetary policy report. in april, we maintained our policy interest rate at 5 % and published a revised outlook for the canadian economy. we had three key messages. first, monetary policy is working. total consumer price index ( cpi ) and core inflation have eased further in recent months, and we expect inflation to continue to move closer to the 2 % target this year. second, growth in the economy looks to be picking up. we expect gdp growth to be solid this year and to strengthen further in 2025. third, as we consider how much longer to hold the policy rate at the current level, we're looking for evidence that the recent further easing in underlying inflation will be sustained. before taking your questions, let me take a moment to discuss recent economic data and the outlook for growth and inflation. in canada, growth stalled in the second half of last year and the economy moved into excess supply. the labour market also cooled from very overheated levels. with employment growing more slowly than the working - age population, the unemployment rate has risen gradually over the last year to 6. 1 % in march. there are also some signs that wage pressures are beginning to ease. economic growth is forecast to strengthen in 2024. strong population growth is increasing consumer demand as well as the supply of workers, and spending by households is forecast to recover through the year. spending by governments also contributes to growth, and us strength supports canadian exports. overall, we forecast gdp growth in canada of 1. 5 % this year and about 2 % in 2025 and 2026. the strengthening economy will gradually absorb excess supply through 2025 and into 2026. cpi inflation was 2. 9 % in march, and price increases are now slowing across most major categories. however, shelter cost inflation is still very high and remains the biggest contribution to overall inflation. 1 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches looking ahead, we expect core inflation to continue to ease gradually. the more timely three - month rates of core inflation are well below the 12 - month rates, suggesting some downward momentum. but with

louis kasekende : improving rural access to finance in uganda opening remarks by dr louis kasekende, deputy governor of the bank of uganda, at the official launch of the uganda rural challenge fund, kampala, 19 april 2013. * * * your excellency klaus dieter duxmann – the ambassador of the federal republic of germany distinguished guests members of the press ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. i am delighted to be here this afternoon to witness the official launch of the uganda rural challenge fund. the fund will provide grants aimed at supporting innovations that will lead to increased access to finance for rural enterprises in uganda, the bulk of which are still locked out of the formal financial sector. the “ rural unbanked ” as you will all agree with me pose some challenges in as far as the financial sectors contribution to growth through financial intermediation is concerned. firstly, the rural population cannot be ignored given its substantial contribution to gdp through agriculture estimated at about 23 percent of the total. secondly, the rural population constitutes a large share of the total population estimated at about 85 percent of the total population. there is therefore a large potential market for savings mobilization which is yet to be tapped by the financial sector. looking at the financial access statistics, only 38 % of ugandans receive financial services from both formal and informal sectors moreover when drilled down further only 20 % use formal sector financial institutions i. e. commercial banks tier 1, credit institutions ( tier 2 ) and microfinance deposit taking institutions ( tier 3 ). this means that nationwide, 62 % of ugandans are not served by any financial institution or groups ( formal, semiformal or informal ). further, the disparity between urban and rural access to financial services is so wide with urban access at 48 % compared to rural access at 35 %. this would suggest that more than 12 million adults in rural areas do not have access to financial services. so definitely there is a lot of work to be done if the financial sector is to reach the more than 12 million rural adult population. further as of 2012, uganda ’ s savings to gdp ratio of about 11. 8 percent is among the lowest in sub - saharan africa. impediments to organized savings are among others, high fees, high minimum deposits and physical distance from banking institutions. 1 according to the world bank financial inclusion index ( findex ) 2011, maintaining a checking account in uganda costs the equivalent of 25 percent of gdp per capita annually, and about