, is to maintain the stability of the florin, promote financial soundness and integrity of the financial system, and facilitate reliable payment systems. while our monetary mandate remains unchanged for almost 40 years, the global context in which we operate, has shifted and transformed in epic proportions. moving away from credit ceilings, by 2010, we introduced the reserve requirement as one of our main monetary policy tools, and the monetary policy committee was formally introduced, bringing also the needed transparency regarding the decisions made in this important committee. i am happy to note that, despite the many headwinds and changes in the economic climate, currently our international reserves are also adequate in terms of the imf recommendations of 4to - 6 months import coverage, accounting for natural disasters. in 2016, we launched our first strategic plan called “ bela yen ”, meaning full steam ahead. by 2018, we design an initial financial stability framework, we produced an extensive policy report on fostering economic resilience of aruba, emphasizing the vulnerabilities of our small, open, naturebased economy, as well as the need for strengthening our adaptative capacity and resiliency as a country, especially in terms of “ bouncing forward ” after a major crisis. and this was two years prior to the covid pandemic. during that same period, many of you might remember that you were present at cba conference on “ safeguarding our future ” where we, including the imf, explored and discussed the many strategies for an aruban circular economy. during 2021, in a post - pandemic time, we set out our second strategic plan “ dilanti biento ”, meaning staying ahead and pushing for a forward - thinking vision and strategy. it ushered a new conviction and journey that our mandate was fundamental to our purpose, namely to “ contribute meaningfully and significantly to enabling the resilience of our community, environment, and economy ”. part of this contribution is the publication by our research department “ govern from the future ” and “ lead with impact ”, comprising various interesting topics, including climate change, that still resonate today, and are highly relevant for aruba ’ s sustainable development. in 2023, several of these topics and themes were emphasized by the imf in aruba ’ s article iv mission. two of which, financial stability and climate change, are well noted in the imf report. and i will tell you, having just recently returned from the imf and world bank

5. the case of aruba only a few months prior to status aparte in 1986, the island council of aruba, after many studies and discussions, decided to institute its own central bank and issue its own currency, the aruban florin, with the same nominal value as the antillean guilder, and that is 1. 79 florin to one us dollar. the prime reasons behind this decision were the perceived complexities within a monetary union with the netherlands antilles hen adopting the antillean guilder and the loss of monetary independence in a fully dollarized economy. for those who are not fully familiar with these issues, i must point out that the decision of the aruban authorities to peg the aruban florin to the us dollar is a unilateral one, and is anchored in the central bank ordinance, the ordinance governing foreign exchange transactions, and the state decree value of the florin. in other words, it takes a political decision to change the exchange rate of the aruban florin vis - a - vis the us dollar. just as the netherlands antilles, aruba has been able to maintain this peg, meaning that we have experienced an unchanged rate of exchange with the us dollar since 1971. starting from 1986, our economy has had an average annual per capita real growth rate of 2. 3 percent, a moderate inflation ( on average 4. 0 percent ), a debt to gdp ratio of 44. 1 percent, which is still manageable, and a level of international reserves that is more than adequate ( currently at 8. 7 months of import payments ). in the last two decades, aruba has made great economic progress : we chose to invest in tourism and, currently, aruba is one of the most popular tourism destinations in the caribbean. two out of three of our visitors are americans, which does not make it strange to hear that the us dollar is a widely accepted means of payment in aruba. these economic and institutional developments demonstrate that it is possible to issue and manage a local currency successfully in a small open economy like ours. 6. the case of the netherlands antilles now, i would like to turn to the case of the netherlands antilles. i know that dollarization of the antillean economy has been discussed before. as early as 1986, de boer and kamps investigated the possibilities of dollarization in the netherlands antilles in a study initiated by the university of the netherlands antilles. 1 the authors advocated prudence with