make judgements in situations that are not always well - defined. taken in this context, the work of the fspb serves as an important anchor for decisions and actions that will engender trust in the financial industry. in a fast moving world, a strong commitment to a professional code of conduct provides the assurance that the public seeks – that financial institutions and employees are held to and will consistently demonstrate high standards of professional and ethical conduct. i hope that the industry will continue to lend its strong support to the fspb ’ s work. following today ’ s launch of the professional code, the bank would urge financial institutions and professional bodies to reflect the standards set out in the code in the values and conduct that you demand of your staff, agents and members. this needs to move beyond symbolic gestures, to the diligent implementation of policies and programs that promote the desired culture. the bank is confident that the fspb will continue to play an important role in supporting these efforts – including through its work to identify implementation challenges, develop solutions and introduce improvements to reflect emerging issues. the financial industry has demonstrated leadership in so many areas – surely none can be as important as leadership in something as fundamental as professional and ethical conduct. on that note, let me once again commend and congratulate the fspb on this important, and certainly most relevant initiative. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

. moreover, differently from the last years, gdp growth was influenced by the construction, mining, transports and communication, and cattle - raising activity sectors, which revealed themselves to be more dynamic and with greater relative contribution than the major projects. that is really positive for our growth sustainability, as it results from the activity of small and medium enterprises, which greatly absorb resources and local labour force and, which has greater impact on the process of the fight against absolute poverty and reflect the diversification of the productive activity in the country. as we know, the main mission of our institution is to ensure price stability. the evaluation we make is that inflation recorded a stable behaviour in 2006, compared with the year 2005, even taking into account that it was characterized by three different moments. until april, we observed a rising trend of prices, period in which the annual variation rate peaked to 17 %. between may and august inflation slowed down, having the monthly variations been successively negative, prompting the annual rate to decline to 10 %, the lowest level observed in the whole year. seasonally, at the end of the year, inflation tends to rise. however, the consumer price index ( cpi ) monthly variation in november differs from that of the similar period of 2005, which makes it possible to record one - digit cumulative inflation at the end of 2006, even if in terms of average rate, we stand slightly above the projections of the beginning of the year. the main instrument of monetary policy we use to restrain and maintain inflation under control were the interbank money market operations supported by a strong vigilance over the requirement of compulsory reserve, which stand at 11. 51 % and by the rise of our intervention interest rate announced at the end of the first semester. the oil price rise in the international market had a considerable impact on fuel and related products domestic prices. this factor influenced the inflation, but the combination of policies by different macroeconomic management institutions and the performance of real sector of the economy have allowed to soften this shock. in 2006, the national institute of statistics ( ine ) introduced a new cpi basket, changing the year - base for 2004 and adjusting the weighing factors of several products comprising the basket. we congratulate the ine for this effort that reinforces the comparability of our statistics with those of other sadc countries, thus contributing to a greater integration of our economies. after a year of clear disturbances, in 2006, the metical revealed to be well more stable against the main cu