is still ongoing, it is clear that climate risks pose a 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches direct threat to financial stability. however, it is important to understand that central banks are not the main policy makers in this area and that they cannot take on more than what their legal goals prescribe. we must not allow the form to be more important than the essence and the unconditional acceptance of the trend to jeopardize what is most significant to us : stability, which has no alternative. depending on how much climate risks can affect financial stability and the implementation of monetary policy, they need to be considered and taken into account when defining our operational frameworks. since climate change knows of no boundaries, international coordination is crucial for advancing this process. global coordination enables exchange of experience, and the diversity of views and inclusiveness lend creditability to proposals and decisions. at the same time, jointly designed solutions have a greater potential for yielding concrete results. on 2 july this year, on its 137th anniversary, the nbs became a member of the network of central banks and supervisors for greening the financial system, showing that it is ready to directly take part in the development of the latest solutions in greener and more sustainable financing. expectations from central banks are great not only because of the adjustment of monetary policy framework, but also because of our expertise that many economic actors rely on in their decision - making. it is common knowledge that central banks conduct independent, high - quality economic analyses and present to the public nothing but facts. for this reason, we can recognise in time and point to the developing risks which may reflect on the financial sector and entire economy. however, we need to continue improving the quality of information about climate risks without which informed decisions cannot be made. hence the importance of the work of international organisations, such as the international financial reporting standards foundation. serbia showed its commitment to progress in this area in september when it issued green bonds for the first time ever. at the same time, we are the first european country outside the eu that did this. a portion of funds will be used to support projects in the area of sustainable energy, energy efficiency, transport, environment and biodiversity, as well as sustainable wastewater management and prevention of pollution. over 200 eminent investors across the globe showed interest in investing in our eurobonds following successful talks of the nbs and ministry of finance delegations with a great number of international investors and financial institutions. ( slide 7 ) the second significant challenge that

area growth is set to remain modest for some time yet. the irish economy turning now to the irish economy, i should say that the central bank ’ s spring bulletin is due to be published to - morrow. it will be giving a fairly detailed analysis of how we see the outlook for the economy. i will confine my remarks today, therefore, to a few general observations. over the past year or so, the pace of economic growth has slowed greatly in the wake of a much more subdued international performance. with such a high dependence on international trade and a disproportionately large ict sector, it was inevitable that ireland would feel the draughts from the developments in the international economy. it was also clear that the high growth rates experienced since 1994 would decline as the economy increasingly encountered infrastructural pressures and labour market tightness, and this inevitably happened. however, the speed of the deceleration in gnp growth was much faster and its extent was significantly greater than expected. such a sharp deceleration was clearly going to be felt in people ’ s pockets and on the jobs front. given the deterioration in the general international economy, the immediate cause of the slowdown here is the weakness of demand. export growth here last year is now estimated to have been only about 4 ¼ per cent, compared with average annual increases of 19 per cent, for example, in the three years to 2000. with such a large traded sector, this slowdown was bound to be felt right through the economy. this has spilled over into domestic demand with both consumption and investment demand showing only modest growth last year. with business and consumer confidence indicators quite weak, it is unlikely that there will be much of a recovery in domestic spending in the short - term. on top of this, we have the outbreak of hostilities in iraq and the major uncertainties that this adds to the equation. at present, we are factoring in only modest growth this year in domestic spending. with only a small pick - up in export growth, gnp growth is likely to be a little less than 2 per cent. there is also some downside risk to this forecast. in this more difficult environment, the pursuit of prudent policies will leave us well - placed to participate in the upturn in the world economy when it comes. an important element in this is that, the rate of increase in public expenditure needs to continue its downward path to a more sustainable level ; it should be contained to the