time dubbed “ nice ” by mervyn king, the governor of the bank of england ), output growth is expected to moderate and inflation to rise further this year. in the euro area, too, the weakening global expansion, stronger pressure from commodity prices and the impact of financial market developments have set the stage for a more cautious, though still robust economic outlook. as a consequence, in march, the ecb staff slightly adjusted downwards its macroeconomic projections on economic growth in the euro area. average annual real gdp growth is now projected to be between 1. 3 % and 2. 1 % ( average : 1. 7 % ) in 2008 and between 1. 3 % and 2. 3 % ( average : 1. 8 % ) in 2009, which reflects moderate but ongoing economic activity. hence, exaggerated growth pessimism is the wrong attitude at the current juncture. instead, it is important to keep in mind that even if a full decoupling of the euro area economy from the us economy does not seem plausible for the time being, structural shifts in the world economy have taken place that support the view that a us slowdown will have less of an impact in europe than in the past. this hope is further justified by the euro area ’ s sound economic fundamentals and its likely good performance in the first quarter of 2008. to elaborate further on the decoupling issue, let me turn my attention to germany. german real gdp has grown strongly by 2. 7 % on average over the past two years in price - adjusted terms. despite mounting global headwinds, the german economy has started into 2008 on a positive note, which is reflected in substantial increases in both industrial activity and construction output in the first quarter of this year. we expect german gdp growth in the first quarter to be around ¾ %. moreover, business sentiment has not deteriorated so far. labour market conditions remain favourable, with the number of unemployed at its lowest level in 15 years, down almost 1. 5 million unemployed within the last two years. however, consumer spending remains lacklustre. as for its future path, we expect private consumption to benefit from the sustained improvement on the domestic labour market. but there is the high risk that consumer spending will prove sensitive to the elevated levels of consumer price inflation and thus display protracted weakness. all things considered, however, the german economy has weathered the global headwinds remarkably well. indeed, the conditions required for a continuation of the economic upturn in germany are

– the imf ’ s blueprint for fintech development, produced together with the world bank. being one of the jurisdictions to take on the fintech challenge early on, this shows that the overall direction we have chosen has put us on the right track. one example of our good practice is opening up the bank of lithuania ’ s payment infrastructure to non - banking entities. now they can directly, – without the middlemen – access the single euro payments area through our centrolink payment platform. today, out of the total 80 users of the centrolink, over three quarters are e - money and payment institutions. by streamlining licensing procedures, we have also shortened the time it takes for such entities to receive authorisation and begin their operations. in addition to this, we ’ ve introduced the concept of a specialized bank, which offers most of the mainstream financial services, but features a lower initial capital requirement. as a result, already 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches 3 specialized bank licences have been issued, with 4 applications under consideration. and, on top of that, we have initiated the creation of a legal framework for crowdfunding and peerto - peer lending. this helps avoid regulatory arbitrage and eliminates the obstacles to the much needed development of alternative financing sources. the results of our efforts speak for themselves : in 2016, we had 6 licenced e - money and payment institutions operating in lithuania ; today, that number has surpassed 80. and yet, despite these early results, we are constantly looking for new ways to adapt. that is a large reason why we actively engage with the novel financial market players. take, for instance, the newcomer programme. or our own regulatory sandbox, which enables innovative firms to test their business models under our guidance and supervision. all this interaction is a two - way street. we do it not only to help new participants, but also to help ourselves identify regulatory shortcomings. — this know - how is especially crucial in one particular area – managing risks that are stemming from fintech. the duality of potential benefits and risks, recognized in the bali fintech agenda, is also the underlying theme in our event today. in this regard, the bank of lithuania has brought the money laundering concerns to the forefront, substantially boosting human resources devoted to the issue. we have also started to look into the non - bank entities when conducting cyber security exercises on the financial services sector. and, when it comes to investor protection, we