some history. graph 1 shows a long - run series for inflation in australia, beginning in the mid 1950s. the post - world war ii era was the time when persistently rising prices became a normal feature of economic life. prior to that, there had been periods of inflation followed by periods of deflation, with relatively little drift in the price level over long periods. through the 1950s, australia had positive inflation, but it was quite low on average, even if rather variable. this was also the case through the first half of the 1960s. markus hyvonen provided excellent research assistance for this speech.'some aspects of monetary policy ', talk by the governor, b. w. fraser, to australian business economists ( abe ), sydney, 31 march 1993, reserve bank of australia bulletin, april 1993, pp. 1 – 7. see statement on the conduct of monetary policy – http : / / www. rba. gov. au / monetarypolicy / statement _ on _ the _ conduct _ of _ monetary _ policy _ 1996. html in an earlier speech ('six years of inflation targeting ', sydney, 20 april 1999 – available at http : / / www. rba. gov. au / publicationsandresearch / bulletin / bu _ may99 / bu _ 0599 _ 2. pdf ), i treated in some detail the way the shift to inflation targeting was'evolutionary rather than revolutionary '. ian macfarlane has provided a more comprehensive historical treatment of monetary policy ( see'australian monetary policy in the last quarter of the twentieth century ', shann memorial lecture, university of western australia, september – available at http : / / www. rba. gov. au / publicationsandresearch / bulletin / bu _ oct98 / bu _ 1098 _ 2. pdf ). available at graph 1 by the end of the 1960s, it had become clear that, not only did prices always rise, but the rate of increase was getting larger. inflation was trending higher, and this continued in the 1970s. as ian macfarlane has pointed out, australian inflation was already at 10 per cent when the opec i rise in oil prices in late 1973 pushed global inflation up to levels rarely seen before. australia's inflation reached 17½ per cent. it did decline thereafter, but by the end of the 1970s, was still running at about 10 per cent. following the recession of 1982 – 83, inflation fell to

##b services and products in the macao banking system rmb business only covered individuals and selected sectors when it first started in macau in 2004. with years of development and policy support, macao banks can provide overseas corporations a variety of rmb services and products, including deposit - taking, currency exchange, remittance, financing, and wealth management etc. all corporations including overseas companies can open rmb deposit account and exchange rmb with banks in macao. banks operating in macao can offer foreign corporations diversified trade settlement services and products, such as rmb trade settlement account ; rmb exchange and remittance for trade settlement purpose etc., as well as tailor - made rmb import and export trade finance. banks in macao can also offer corporations a full range of rmb commercial financing as well as rmb non - deliverable forward ( ndf ) and rmb deliverable forward ( df ) to help corporations hedge against rmb exposures. commercial entities and financial institutions can issue rmb bonds in macao. they can also apply rmb funds directly in the investment products offered by the banks in macao, or via macao in the offshore rmb market in hong kong. 10. reasons to consider doing rmb business through macao • macao has been exploiting its special geographical and historical condition in performing its liaison platform function between mainland china and portuguese - speaking countries – macao is the only city in china to maintain such special relationship with portuguese speaking countries ( including angola, brazil, cape verde, east timor, guinea bissau, mozambique, portugal and st tome e principe ). the central government of china attaches much importance to it. as early as in 2003, the standing secretariat of the “ forum for cooperation and development between china and portuguese speaking countries ” was set up in macao. in november 2010, the then premier of the state council, mr. wen jiabao, visited macao for the 3rd ministerial meeting of the “ forum for economic cooperation between china and portuguese speaking countries ”. he announced a series of policy measures to promote macao to be the platform for economic cooperation between the countries. he hoped that macao would perform “ core function ” in promoting rmb trade settlement in the process, which would further embody macao ’ s position as platform for economic cooperation between china and lusophone countries. in fact, macao is also in a good position to extend this platform function to countries in latin america.