2012. net export deficit narrowed 23. 9 % during this period, reflecting higher exports and lower imports than a year earlier. foreign trade data reveal that the positive impulse is carried forward in july as well. year - on - year, exports grew 11. 6 % during these months, whereas imports recorded low annual growth rates, namely 1. 1 %. these developments have led to trade deficit narrowing by 5. 2 %, year - on - year. monetary developments point to moderate monetary inflationary pressures on the economy. money supply retained its expansion rates of earlier months, registering 8. 4 % annual growth in july. its performance reflects the low demand of the domestic economy for monetary assets. the performance of financial markets has reflected the improved liquidity conditions, lower risk premiums and inflation situation in the economy. interest rates in the interbank market went down, transmitting the most recent cut of the key rate in july. additionally, yields in the primary market of government securities continued their descent. further easing of monetary conditions is expected to be transmitted also to interest rates in other segments of the financial market, conform to the time lag of monetary policy transmission mechanism. in the improved context of domestic financial markets and in the presence of a sound banking system, the bank of albania expects that its earlier decisions to ease the monetary policy will be eventually transmitted in full to the economy. projections for the economic outlook are in line with the baseline scenario assessed in previous months. economic activity at home is expected to remain low, conditioned by weak consumption and private investments as well as limited space for fiscal stimulus. consequently, inflationary pressures remain low and in check, reflected in the performance of inflation expected to range close to bank of albania ’ s target. * * * at the end of the discussions, the supervisory council decided to keep the key interest rate unchanged at 4. 0 %. bis central bankers ’ speeches

usha thorat : financial inclusion and information technology keynote address by ms usha thorat, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, at the “ vision 2020 – indian financial services sector ”, hosted by ndtv, mumbai, 12 september 2008. * * * it is indeed very heartening to be here at this wipro - ndtv convergence conference on “ vision 2020 – indian financial services sector ”. i thank the organizers for inviting me here today. introduction the banking system has grown enormously in the last five years keeping pace with and in some cases leading the country ’ s remarkable economic growth. simultaneously, the banking system has improved its strength, efficiency and resilience. there have also been significant improvements in the payments and settlements system and electronic payments and rtgs is now much more in use. it has played a major role in these achievements. today banks have centralised operations, more and more banks and branches are moving to cbs, network based computing, new delivery channels such as networked atms, internet banking, smart card based products, mobile access etc and are using it for customer relationship management, customer transaction pattern analysis credit profiling and risk management. at the same time, large number of households continues to be excluded from the formal banking system and as per some recent surveys their share has increased. the extent and reasons for exclusion are many and have been well documented in the rangarajan committee ( rc ) and more recently in the very comprehensive and analytical section on financial inclusion in rbi ’ s latest currency and finance ( rcf ) released a few days ago. the rcf points out that despite the broad international consensus regarding the importance of access to finance as a crucial poverty alleviation tool, it is estimated that globally over two billion people are currently excluded from access to financial services ( united nations, 2006 ). definitional issues no universally accepted definition of financial inclusion is available. financial inclusion has generally been defined in terms of exclusion from the financial system. broadly, financial exclusion is construed as the inability to access necessary financial services in an appropriate form due to problems associated with access, conditions, prices, marketing or self - exclusion. the working or operational definitions of financial exclusion generally focus on ownership or access to particular financial products and services. there is no single comprehensive measure that can be used to indicate the extent of financial inclusion across economies. specific indicators such as number of bank accounts, number of bank branches, that are generally used as measures of financial inclusion