market. for obvious reasons, this move is not only uplifting to the technological advancement and capability of the matero community through the provision of modern banking services like the autobank, but also goes a long way in assisting the bank of zambia, as a monetary authority, to have a firm control over the implementation of monetary policy. you would agree with me that it is quite difficult for a central bank, like ours, to implement monetary policy effectively in an environment characterised by inadequate banking facilities. it is for this reason therefore that i commend the management of stanbic bank zambia for bringing banking facilities closer to the people. in this regard, i wish to assure you that on our part we shall continue to support you in your endeavours to open more of such branches, because we firmly believe that you are making our work and that of the government much easier. however, may i take this opportunity to advise the management of stanbic zambia that if you want this branch or many of such branches you intend to open in future to be beneficial to the communities in which they operate, kindly be flexible on the requirements for opening accounts as well as lowering the minimum account balances to be maintained by your clients. i say so because communities like matero and the surrounding areas comprise mainly of people who are in the informal sector. therefore, it would be unreasonable for you to ask an unemployed prospective customer to bring a letter from their employer before an account could be opened with your branch! in other words, i strongly urge you to tailor your banking services to the needs of the community you operate in. finally, let me also take this opportunity to urge the other commercial banks operating in zambia to emulate stanbic bank zambia by establishing community banking branches. as your regulator and supervisor, we take a lot of pride in seeing commercial banks coming up with innovative and progressive financial services, such as community banking. i believe that it is through the provision of such tailor - made banking services that banks would meaningfully fulfil their role as financial intermediaries in our economy. with these few remarks, ladies and gentlemen, it is now my honour and privilege to declare the stanbic bank matero branch officially open. i thank you.

in this period for one reason and one reason only : the zero interest rate lower bound had been reached and the economic situation unequivocally called for looser, not tighter, monetary conditions. the goal was to maintain price stability, which meant, in these circumstances, avoiding deflation. one should always have in mind that there are no clear recipes for avoiding a deflationary trend in such a situation. the most famous illustration of this statement is the us experience in the late 1920s and early 1930s. at the time the us policymakers underestimated the consequences of a bout of deflation and failed to take aggressive action. the consumer price index ( and the gdp deflator ) declined by 24 % from august 1929 to march 1933, after having been virtually flat from 1921 to 1929. this decline was accompanied by a fall in real gdp of almost 30 percent. 9 a more recent example is japan ’ s “ lost decade ”. there the situation was not underestimated to the same degree. however, public actions culminating in a doubling of japanese public debt proved to be insufficient to avoid a protracted deflationary episode. let me review the history of our interventions in more detail. at the beginning of 2009, the severe downturn in the global economy had translated into a very serious threat of deflation in switzerland. for example, the inflation forecasts produced by the imf showed inflation in switzerland to be in negative territory for two years in a row. price stability was evidently not assured. the substantial increase in the value of the swiss franc since the beginning of financial crisis represented an inappropriate tightening of monetary conditions. yet, it was imperative that monetary conditions be kept as loose as possible, a fortiori to avoid a further monetary tightening. given that the interest rate was effectively at a zero level, the snb decided to prevent any appreciation in the swiss franc with respect to the euro from march 2009 on. the snb achieved this goal by repeatedly intervening in the foreign exchange market during the course of 2009. this policy was maintained until the monetary policy assessment ( mpa ) of december 2009. by the end of 2009, the economic situation was showing some signs of improvement and the threat of deflation was estimated to have diminished. as a consequence, the snb decided that a certain appreciation in the swiss franc could be allowed without price stability being compromised. at the december mpa, the snb therefore announced that it would act there are, however, twice daily