. regarding the future prospects for credit flows it can be noted that stable funding sources ( loan - deposit coverage ratio of around 90 % ), strong liquidity position, and capital adequacy ratio continuously being twice as high than the minimum required, point to room for further increase of lending in the domestic economy. the improvement of the banking sector regulation in view of further implementation of the basle and eu standards will remain being a high priority on the agenda in this field. in general, the current macroeconomic developments and the expected future outlook indicate a moderate recovery of domestic economy ( considering expected developments for the economies of the most important trading partners and domestic drivers of growth ), inflation rate in line with the expectations, a balance of payments position that ensures a comfortable level of foreign reserves and still slow credit flows. these assessments created an environment for monetary relaxation, as a contribution to higher credit growth and thus, support to the domestic economy. on that basis, in january, we reduced the key interest rate on cb bills from 3. 75 % to 3. 5 %, which is the historically lowest level. since january 2013, the changes in the reserve requirement instrument came into force, through reduction of the base of banks ’ reserve requirements by the amount of newly approved loans, but only for credits to sectors whose growth reduces the external vulnerability of the economy ( net exporters and energy sector ). this non - standard measure will be in effect until the end of 2014, when the need for further application will be examined. these changes in reserve requirements have already started to contribute to higher lending to previously mentioned sectors in the economy. just last week, we have done yet another change in the reserve requirement by reducing the reserve requirement ratio on denar deposits from 10 % to 8 % and simultaneous increase of the reserve requirement ratio on foreign currency deposits from 13 % to 15 %, as well as introducing 0 % reserve requirement ratio on banks ’ long term liabilities to nonresidents. by this measure, we are aiming to : support the process of deeuroization in the economy, inject liquidity in support of lending to the private sector and stimulate higher inflows from nonresidents especially from financial institutions. last, but not least, i would like to point out our efforts in strengthening our statistics in the last few years. in march 2013, the national bank of the republic of macedonia started transmitting the quarterly balance of payments and annual international trade in services data to eurostat, while in may

2013 additional data series on fdi flows and stocks disaggregated by partner countries and activities were submitted. currently we are working on the establishment of new data warehouse system in the central bank that will contribute for improved data management in general, as well as enable the transmission of more demanding and detailed datasets in the future. in july 2012 we started with submission of a more detailed set of the external debt data to the world bank within the quarterly external bis central bankers ’ speeches debt statistics database in accordance with the requirements for sdds countries, thus being among the first countries in the region fulfilling the overall data requirements in this field. in addition, just recently, we have received the first annual report by the imf on data submission under sdds, that we joined in november 2011, with positive annotations of the overall data submission under this system. further improvement of our statistics, bringing it closer to the eu requirements, remains one of the key priorities of the central bank. just to summarize, in view of the global environment, the current macroeconomic performances of the macedonian economy are relatively favorable. anyway, just like in the previous years, the risks are still present and they are related to the expected recovery of the external demand, the sentiment on the global financial markets and the world prices development. continuation with the structural reforms is a key in eliminating structural bottlenecks and paving a way for sustainable growth and faster eu integration process. the nbrm will continue with regular monitoring and analysis of the developments in the economy and remain prepared, if necessary, to undertake appropriate measures to preserve macroeconomic stability. bis central bankers ’ speeches