an exact figure for potential growth. we have instead chosen to work with an interval of 2 to 2. 5 per cent, which has emerged gradually as we have endeavoured to refine our analyses and improve our knowledge. the interval indicates that we have been influenced by the strong growth figures during the latter part of the 1990s, but that we have been cautious in stipulating to any great degree our assessments of some form of " new economy ". a further reason for not specifying potential growth in more detail than this is that new information is received continuously and this affects our assessment. as i mentioned earlier, the national accounts have recently been revised and the new results indicate a strong growth in both gdp and productivity in sweden during the period 1993 - 2002. such revisions show that there is considerable uncertainty in the statistics and that it is important not to overreact to the most recent figures. when we make assessments of inflation in connection with monetary policy decisions we normally look two years ahead. in this context we also calculate potential growth with the aid of more detailed data. this includes labour market data, for instance, to assess labour force developments with reference to developments in the working population, people in regular education and labour market policy training and the number of people on sick leave or early retirement pensions. a digression on demography allow me, before i finish, to comment further on demographic developments. one factor that we, like many other countries, will need to grapple is the adverse demographic development that will take place in few years'time. this will entail the percentage of elderly people in the population increasing significantly and resulting in a considerable reduction in labour force participation. large demands will be made on public finances and the labour supply and growth trends will be subdued. my last slide shows the growth in actual hours worked during the period 1981 - 2001, together with a calculation for growth during the period 2002 - 2050 ( figure 10 ). the calculated growth in working hours is based on statistics sweden's forecast of the swedish population up to 2050 and fixes other determining parameters at the 2002 level. the average increase in working hours amounted to approximately 0. 4 per cent during the period 1981 - 2001. the calculated series'average increase 2002 - 2050 stops at a modest 0. 01 per cent ; in practice almost no increase at all. conclusion i shall conclude with a summary. a high long - term growth rate is one of the most important objectives of economic policy. it becomes easier to

confident that their knowledge and experience would be immensely helpful to the participants in understanding and appreciating the practical implications behind these changes both from a supervisor ’ s perspective as well as from the standpoint of the supervised institutions. to conclude, let me say that we all face enormous resource and capacity constraints in coping with existing responsibilities, let alone undertaking these new challenges. hence, the value of coming together to share our experiences and plan regional training programs for our member countries is very important. through these meetings, we can learn and maintain strong networking relationship which should enhance our efforts in capacity building in this innovative and challenging area of financial supervision. ladies and gentlemen, it gives me much pleasure to declare this regional seminar for financial supervisors open and i wish you all an enjoyable and fruitful week of discussions. thank you for your attention and may god bless you all. soifua.