growth for hong kong. in financial services, hong kong has long been the largest offshore rmb centre and this role will continue to grow as the rmb is used more widely in international trade and investment. to develop capacity and maintain its position as the leading offshore rmb business hub, hong kong is working hard on three fronts : liquidity, products, and infrastructure. hong kong already hosts the biggest offshore rmb liquidity pool. the enhanced currency swap agreement with the people's bank of china provides further liquidity support to the offshore market through the rmb liquidity facilities set up by the hkma, to meet the growing business demand. as regards products, hong kong will continue to upgrade and expand the family of connect schemes between mainland china and hong kong. our unique advantages of physical proximity to the mainland, the common law system and world - class infrastructure make us the perfect " testing ground " for china's journey towards capital account liberalisation. at the same time, we are constantly working to widen the spectrum of rmb products and tools for cross - boundary investment, asset allocation and risk management. on infrastructure, the central moneymarkets unit, which is hong kong's central securities depository, is undergoing a major overhaul to upgrade its operational capacity and product offerings, to better support the growth of rmb bond issuance and associated custodian services. our mbridge project, which is a collaboration with the bis and a number of central banks including the people's bank of china is also pressing ahead. our latest pilot test has demonstrated that this wholesale central bank digital currency platform can speed up cross - border payments at reduced cost and with better transparency. we are expecting to welcome more fellow central banks to join this open platform. and very soon we will launch what we call a minimum viable product, 3 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches with the aim of paving the way for the gradual commercialisation of mbridge. hopefully this new innovative platform will help resolve longstanding pain points in cross - border payments and enhance the efficiency of the global value chain. meanwhile, hong kong will stay at the forefront of the latest global trends such as digitalisation, innovation and esg. as examples, we recently published our new fintech promotion roadmap to accelerate fintech adoption in the financial services industry. hong kong's green financing platform also offers an excellent way for asian corporates to tap sustainable financing and enhance their esg performance. hong kong recently issued the world '

expectations. similarly, the net effect of fiscal policy on spending may have been weak given that policy measures were probably perceived as temporary, potentially inducing savings in view of higher taxes expected in the near future to finance them. in any case, regardless of their actual effectiveness, the presence of highly expansionary fiscal and monetary stances suggests that the unsatisfactory recovery in advanced economies does not reflect a lack of stimulus measures. 2 on the other hand, recent negative supply shocks have affected the performance of the world economy and particularly that of the united states. these shocks included bad weather, high oil prices which have partly reversed course, and the tragic events in japan during the first quarter of 2011. yet, independently of their importance, these events have been transitory and, therefore, the extent to which they explain the sluggish rebound of advanced countries since 2009 is necessarily limited. the previous observations suggest the need to search for the existence of possible fundamental obstacles to a stronger economic recovery in industrialized countries. while in the current complex economic situation many factors certainly interact, some features stand out. in particular, in the united states, there seem to be two important sources of growth - limiting factors. one is the sequel to the financial crisis summarized by the consumer debt overhang, slow debt restructuring and foreclosed home sales, and high risk aversion and contingent questions about the effects of monetary policy on aggregate demand are found in frederic s. mishkin, “ monetary policy strategy : lessons from the crisis, ” nber working paper no. 16755, february 2011. for a discussion of the possible limitations of fiscal stimulus, see robert j. barro and charles j. redlick, “ macroeconomic effects from government purchases and taxes, ” quarterly journal of economics 126 ( 1 ) : 51 – 102, february 2011. bis central bankers ’ speeches reserve provisioning by banks. the resolution of the problematic debt and credit legacy from the previous asset price bubble, as illustrated by the large number of households with negative home equity, is taking a long time, as seems to be the case in the aftermath of any big financial crisis. this impasse contributes to an explanation of the virtual stagnation of mortgage lending and residential construction in the united states. 3 a second source of obstacles in the united states appears to be the unintended consequences from the corrective measures after the crisis, which might have resulted in heightened uncertainty. these actions include the discussions of eventual fiscal consolidation in terms of future higher