mario draghi : interview with lithuanian business daily verslo zinios interview by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, with verslo zinios, conducted by mr dalius simenas on 25 september 2014. * * * the saying that “ when america sneezes, europe catches a cold ” was absolutely true in the aftermath of the dramatic collapse of lehman brothers in the autumn of 2008. we are now seeing signs of a recovery in the united states and the united kingdom, but are still not seeing any in the euro area. does this worry you? what is missing? i am not sure i can agree with the last part. the euro area has, in fact, been recovering since the second quarter of 2013, when the economy returned to growth after six quarters of recession. it is true, however, that the recovery seems to have lost momentum recently : the flat gdp reading in the second quarter of 2014 was disappointing. according to the preliminary information received over the summer, economic conditions have been somewhat weaker than expected. overall, however, we expect modest growth in the second half of the year and continue to expect euro area domestic demand to be supported by various factors. these include our accommodative monetary policy stance, favourable financing conditions and structural reforms, which should sustain private consumption and investment. at the same time, unacceptably high unemployment and continued weak credit growth are likely to curb the strength of the recovery. there are clear risks in sight : in particular, heightened geopolitical tensions could dampen business and consumer confidence. furthermore, the risk of insufficient structural reforms could weigh on the business environment. how can this uncomfortable cocktail of high unemployment ( 11. 5 % this july ) and ultra - low inflation in the euro area ( 0. 3 % in august, i. e. far below the ecb ’ s target of below, but close to, 2 % ) be overcome? how, if at all, can europe avoid a stagnation scenario such as that faced by the japanese economy for decades? we do not see japanese - style deflation in the euro area, as a number of factors differ distinctly from japan in the 1990s. firstly, we, the ecb, took decisive action at a very early stage in the crisis, and have continued to do so. most recently, against the backdrop of a persistently weak inflation outlook, slowing growth momentum and subdued monetary and credit dynamics, we decided in early september to

emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : bank of ugandaa€™s 5 - year financial markets development plan speech by prof. emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, at the launch of the 5 - year financial markets development plan, kampala, 9 september 2008. * * * your excellencies, honourable members of parliament, ceos, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, i would like to thank you for honouring my invitation to attend the launch of the 5year financial markets development plan. the decision to prepare this plan was made in 2005 at a meeting of the monetary affairs committee ( mac ) of the east african community, which at that time consisted of the three central bank governors of the bank of uganda, the bank of tanzania and the central bank of kenya. i am glad to add that the mac has since been expanded to include the governors of the central banks of rwanda and burundi, after their countries became members of the east african community in 2007. the process of developing the 5 - year financial markets development plan took some time, as the central banks had to come up with a harmonised common planning framework with the active participation of the various stakeholders in the financial sector in all the five countries. therefore, this plan has been developed through an extensive consultative process involving stakeholders in uganda and the rest of the east african region. at the 2005 mac meeting, it was noted that the governments of the east african countries had made significant progress in promoting the development of financial sector, in areas of regulation and supervision ; monetary and fiscal policies ; infrastructure development such as payments and settlement systems, and trading platforms. the above efforts were aimed at fostering price stability and sound and competitive financial systems. while macroeconomic stability had been achieved, deepening the financial sector and increasing the efficiency in the financial markets remained a challenge. to address these deficiencies, the mac decided to adopt a strategy of formulating a comprehensive five - year financial markets development plan for east africa. to spearhead the development of the plan in uganda, the bank of uganda established the financial markets development committee ( fmdc ) and its dedicated secretariat, and subcommittees comprising various stakeholders from the financial sector. i would like to thank the members of these committees for a job well done. without their commitment and dedication, we would not be here to launch this framework that is mapping out a grand programme for transformation of financial markets in uganda. i would also like to thank our development partners