of prices, in shekels, of imports to israel indicates a decline in the past two years, both because the composition of our imports included groups of goods that declined in price, and because a marked share of imports are from countries using the euro, which as known weakened markedly against the shekel. another factor acting in recent years to moderate price increases is a change in israeli consumption patterns, reflected in, for example, an increase in consumer purchases from abroad primarily via the internet. this became stronger with the expansion of the customs exemption on personal imports in 2012 and again at the end of 2014. beyond its direct impact, personal imports act to increase competition among domestic manufacturers and marketers of many consumer goods. although price reductions initiated by the government diminished in 2016, they still contributed to a decline of approximately 0. 2 percent in the 2016 cpi. despite the labor market being near to full employment, in recent years the decline in inflation expectations was reflected in an only moderate increase in nominal wages, which together with the decline in the cpi essentially became an increase in real wages at a solid pace. this was reflected in a marked increase in consumers ’ purchasing power, and supported the continued growth in private consumption. from the perspective of its impact on inflation, producer prices increasing while consumer prices decreased were reflected in — until recently — unit labor cost which did not increase, so that labor costs did not create pressure for increasing prices, while at the same time the increase in purchasing power as a result of the increase in real wages supported growth of private consumption. fiscal policy in the past two years the deficit in actuality was about 2 percent of gdp, considerably lower than the deficit ceiling. with that, it is important to look at the estimate of the cyclically adjusted deficit — an estimate that takes into account the effect — on tax revenues and on some components of expenditure — of where the economy stands in the business cycle. from this viewpoint, the deficit increased in 2016, as a result of a real increase of 5. 6 percent in expenditure while reducing tax rates, and it is high by international comparison. that is, budget policy also supported, alongside monetary policy, the expansion of economic activity. the share of debt in gdp continued to decline in 2016 as well, in contrast to the trend in most oecd countries, and this welcome trend acted to continue providing sources in the budget due to the decline in interest payments on the debt. in recent years, various factors acted to reduce 2 / 4 bis central

. this is a child & youth finance international ( cyfi ) initiative, with the support of the organisation for economic co - operation and development ( oecd ), and over 53 thousand institutions and organisations and over 32 million children and young people participate in this year ’ s edition. the slogan for this year is ‘ learn. save. earn. ’ around this slogan, partner institutions organise awareness - raising and educational activities. as active participants in the money week activities, we have chosen to focus on educating the young people and encouraging them not to use the 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches outdated terms “ new lek ” – “ old lek ” in our day - to - day financial interactions. our slogan for this year is “ too young to speak in old lek ” this is the overarching theme for most of our contest categories. i take this opportunity to thank, on behalf of the bank of albania, all the participants and i exhort them to be an active part in the efforts for eliminating such outdated terminology. the bank of albania, with long - standing support from the albanian association of banks, and the precious support from the ministry of education, sports and youth, will organise a series of awareness - raising activities for children and young people on such topics. thus, during the week, a number of activities will be organised such as lectures, contests, visits to commercial banks and the museum of the bank of albania, aimed at involving as many students as possible. in all educational activities of the bank of albania, including these contests, we appreciate and encourage inspiration, originality and proactive thinking. the submitted projects for all the categories, whose winners are present today, feature all these elements. i take this opportunity to personally congratulate all of them for their qualitative works presented during the submission phase. their work and engagement are a source of constant inspiration for the bank of albania to introduce increasingly ambitious projects. the projects category targeted sixth graders, the photomontage category targeted ninth graders and the videos category targeted high - school students. the participation rate was very high, with around 340 students from 40 schools. i would like to extend my special thanks to the teachers and professors, whose commitment and passion is a key and necessary element for the realisation of these educational projects. lastly, i would like to thank you all for the insofar commitment, and invite all the participating institutions to continue the cooperation in the future, with a view to advancing our financial