barbro wickman - parak : the riksbank and the property market speech by ms barbro wickman - parak, deputy governor of the sveriges riksbank, at fastighetsdagen 2008, stockholm, 14 may 2008. * * * subprime loans in the united states were the origins of the deep - seated tensions in the international financial markets, which have not yet relinquished their grip after almost a year. the problems in the subprime market are an important reason behind the collapse in housing construction and the falling house prices, which have made a profound impression on the real economy in the united states. in some other countries, too, the earlier sharp rises in property prices have slowed down and been replaced by falling prices. here in sweden we have so far been spared these events. how does the riksbank view future developments in the property market and what stance does the bank's monetary policy take in relation to asset prices? today i will address these questions. i will also briefly comment on the recent developments in the financial markets. several countries have experienced rapidly rising house prices, for instance the united states and the united kingdom, as well as denmark, ireland and spain. recently there has been a slowdown in the rate of increase and in some of these countries house prices are now falling. in the united states house prices have fallen by around 10 per cent since the peak in 2006 ( see figure 1 ). in sweden, too, house prices have risen rapidly, even more so than in the united states. since 1995 swedish house prices have risen by more than 150 per cent ; the corresponding figure in the united states is around 115 per cent. at the same as house prices have soared, inflation in sweden has been moderate and consumer prices have only risen by 14 per cent since 1995 ( see figure 2 ). there are several factors behind the upturn in swedish house prices ; swedish households ’ real incomes have grown, their financial wealth has increased and in addition real interest rates have been low. although more housing has been built, it has not been enough to meet the demand. the percentage of swedish municipalities reporting a shortage of housing doubled to 42 per cent between 2002 and 2007 according to statistics from the national board of housing, building and planning. more than half, or 60 per cent, of the population now live in municipalities with housing shortages. households ’ debt ratio, that is their debts in relation to their disposable income, has risen rapidly

radovan jelasic : remittances to serbia speech by mr radovan jelasic, governor of the national bank of serbia, on the occasion of the international conference on remittances, berlin, 29 november 2007. * * * dear mrs. minister, mr. minister, your excellency, ladies and gentlemen, it would be true to say that citizens of serbia are its main article of export since no other “ article “ brings in more foreign currency than the serbian diaspora sending remittances from abroad. this is particularly true of the serbian diaspora in germany as over 700, 000 serbian nationals still live there – let us be clear on this, i am referring to those still holding serbian passports, or better to say, yugoslav passports! though our fellow citizens have left serbia, and done so for various reasons of economic or political nature, in order to obtain better employment opportunities or to flee the war - torn regions, etc. – they all share a common denominator. all of them are sending money to serbia. and, they are sending lots of it! based on our estimates, around usd 3, 0 billion or 8. 1 % of the gdp was sent to serbia in 2006, of which over usd 300 million from germany alone! these transactions have two important aspects : social – assistance to those who had stayed behind, care for the elderly, supporting relatives, and economic – investment in the smes, residential building, purchase of property, investment in their own or their children ’ s education, etc. however, our estimates show that only half of all remittances take the formal route, i. e. reach serbia through banking channels, which certainly has nothing to do with the quality of the banking sector in serbia since 80 % of the sector is in majority ownership of well ranked strategic owners from the eu countries - austria, italy, france and greece. this means that the majority of such money is brought into serbia by people crossing borders, which naturally has a negative impact on all those participating in such dealings : • there are side - effects to money senders in terms of undesirable costs, safety exposure and loss of tax benefits ( if the aim is to support relatives ) ; • money recipients must pick up the money and hopefully take it to a bank, which is not a simple matter as they do not fully qualify for use of banking products, such as credit cards, mortgage loans, etc. why is money still being