last year, there were several bond deals of about s $ 1 billion from domestic corporate issuers successfully placed in singapore. structured debt products now account for about 35 % of the total s $ debt issuance, reflecting a move towards more sophisticated debt instruments. with deeper and more mature capital markets, and greater confidence and experience in managing larger s $ flows, we are now ready to make a further move. since october last year, mas has been seeking the views of key market participants on how we can facilitate the continued growth of the s $ capital markets. following these dialogues, we have reviewed the non - internationalisation policy, taking into account their ideas and suggestions. we have decided to further liberalise the policy, to lift many of the specific restrictions on the use of the s $. henceforth, we will retain only two basic guidelines : a. first, financial institutions may not extend s $ credit facilities exceeding s $ 5 million to nonresident financial entities, where they have reason to believe that the proceeds may be used for speculation against the s $ exchange rate. this continues to be necessary, as we have no reason to allow offshore speculators to access the liquidity in our onshore fx swaps and money markets. b. second, when a non - resident entity wishes to obtain a s $ loan, or tap our equity or bond markets to fund overseas activities, it must swap or convert the s $ proceeds into foreign currency as and when it uses the proceeds offshore. this guideline is unlikely to stand in the way of market development, as the s $ is not a currency commonly used for transactions abroad, and non - resident entities would in any case wish to swap or convert the s $ proceeds into a currency of their choice for overseas use. with this liberalisation, the following will now be possible. a. first, mas will exempt all individuals and non - financial entities, which includes corporate treasury centres, from the s $ lending restrictions of the non - internationalisation policy. this recognises that such entities are not usually the prime drivers of destabilizing currency speculation. b. second, for non - resident financial entities that continue to be governed by the s $ policy, we will lift restrictions in the following financial activities : i. asset swaps, cross - currency swaps and cross - currency repos can now be transacted freely. mas had hitherto treated such transactions as forms of s $ lending. it will no longer do so

of england suggest, in any event, that when rates begin to rise they will do so very gradually, remaining below historical values for a lengthy period. the monetary policy of the bank of japan the differences are even more marked in the case of the bank of japan. nor can we forget that, prior to the international crisis, the japanese economy had not overcome the effects of its own domestic crisis which began in the 1990s following a substantial credit boom and a burgeoning real estate bubble. the various economic programmes implemented since have not managed to put the japanese economy back on a stable growth path, illustrating the difficulty involved in restoring normality when an economy enters a perverse cycle of deflation and contraction of activity. the latest programme – introduced and promoted by prime minister abe – included among its three pillars an ambitious monetary expansion plan which, with official interest rates close to zero, is being implemented through growth of the monetary base. although the latest data show an incipient return to positive rates of growth and inflation, evidently monetary policy in japan is still far removed from the threshold marking not only a change of cycle, but also a move towards a less expansionary stance, in contrast to the cases of the federal reserve and the bank of england. the monetary policy of the european central bank the specific characteristics of current euro area monetary circumstances stem from the complexity and depth of the crisis and the slow pace at which the euro area is emerging from bis central bankers ’ speeches the crisis in comparison with other areas. following the negative data of 2012 and 2013, the projections published by the ecb last june indicate that the euro area will not recoup precrisis levels of gdp until the end of next year. however, the recovery in employment in the euro area as a whole will not be completed in 2015. since end - 2011 the inflation rate has moved on a declining trend. it stands at an all - time low and the available projections indicate that it will remain, for the foreseeable time horizon, far from the benchmark of 2 % which, in the medium term, marks the price stability target governing the ecb ’ s actions. the scenario i described above was that encountered by the governing council of the ecb at its meeting in the first week of june and required resolute and more expansionary monetary policy action. such action was required because, although available indicators still pointed to medium - term inflation expectations remaining anchored at levels compatible with the definition of price stability, if inflation becomes en