and coordinated response to deliver meaningful impact to stakeholders is urgent and paramount. the flood last year provided a harrowing glimpse of the consequences of fragmented actions. delayed evacuation responses and inefficient donation allocation to relief centres resulted in lost lives and wastages. applying lessons learnt to achieve desired outcomes for the financial sector – which is finance for all, finance for transformation and finance for sustainability – requires leaders to have foresight in identifying collaborative 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches opportunities across industries and work together to develop impactful and scalable solutions. two areas i wish to highlight in which the bank sees room for the industry to demonstrate immediacy and act together. first, mainstreaming value - based intermediation ( vbi ). the islamic finance industry has demonstrated commendable progress through the vbi community of practitioners ( cop ) in developing frameworks and guidance that support the implementation of vbi. this momentum should continue into other implementation areas such as'collaborative pilot'solutions, and impact monitoring and reporting with even greater rigour. as envisioned in the blueprint, collaboration should also be extended beyond islamic finance as vbi principles are universally applicable to the whole financial sector. for stakeholders of financial institutions, these initiatives should only be measured as " accomplished " once the benefits of value - based finance are genuinely experienced and felt, especially by financial consumers. to achieve this, business strategies, operations and manpower must be aligned to impact - driven corporate value intent. finance solutions goes beyond providing economic benefits, it extends into delivering tangible social and environmental benefits. another area is open data. a multi - stakeholder collaboration involving the financial industry, government agencies and even the third sector such as ngos is crucial in advancing open data arrangements. this year, open data initiatives will focus on identification of high priority use cases by the industry, which can then be immediately worked on together. through initiatives such as vbi and open data, financial institutions can augment its contribution to wider stakeholders in promoting economic and social developments. the third imperative, ( and this is a viewpoint close to heart ), is that value - based leadership requires empathy. empathy is deeply rooted in the fundamental values of shariah, such as ihsan, fairness and mutuality. at its core, islamic finance seeks to prevent harm and promote the attainment of benefits to improve lives and livelihood. this includes alleviating hardships experienced by customers through funding, investment and protection solutions as well as making improvements in how customers

svein gjedrem : the inflation target and the floating krone : the interplay between fiscal policy, the interest rate and competitiveness address by mr svein gjedrem, governor of norges bank ( central bank of norway ), to the executive board of the federation of norwegian manufacturing industries, oslo, 20 march 2002. this speech is based on information provided in norges bank ’ s inflation report 1 / 2002, earlier speeches and the governor ’ s annual address on 14 february 2002. accompanying charts can be found on the norges bank ’ s website ( www. norges - bank. no ). * * * norway ’ s economic policy is based on the guidelines for fiscal and monetary policy. the guidelines for fiscal policy state that the use of petroleum revenues over the central government budget shall be equivalent to the expected real return on the government petroleum fund. monetary policy is oriented towards low and stable inflation. historically, periods of high inflation have always been followed by a downturn. low and stable inflation fosters stability and growth in the economy. establishing guidelines for economic policy is not new. both fiscal and monetary policy have been based on such rules throughout the post - war period, with the exception of the last half of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. monetary policy has had a clear anchor since 1986. the inflation target provides an anchor for expectations concerning future inflation and interest rates. the inflation target is set at 2½ per cent. of course, the authorities must stand firm about the figure 2½ if the inflation target is to anchor long - term expectations and if we shall reap the long - term benefits of this conduct of monetary policy. monetary policy affects the economy with a lag. the current level of inflation does not provide an adequate basis for determining the level at which interest rates should be set today. our analyses indicate that a substantial share of the effects of an interest rate change occurs within two years. two years is thus a reasonable time horizon for achieving the inflation target. economic agents can act on the assumption that the inflation rate will be 2½ per cent. if it appears that inflation will be higher than 2½ per cent with unchanged interest rates, the interest rate will be increased. if it appears that inflation will be lower than 2½ per cent with unchanged interest rates, the interest rate will be reduced. there is symmetry here. it is equally important to avoid an inflation rate that is too low, as it is to avoid an inflation rate