was revised at the same time in such a way that the growth for the whole year 2005 remainedl in line with the forecast. recently, indicators have shown a relatively positive picture of the development of economic activity, for example, the business tendency survey, the retail trade index and statistics for foreign trade. the purchasing managers index for the manufacturing industry has, as has been the case in the euro area, indicated a clear improvement in industrial activity since the middle of last year and this development has also continued recently. altogether, the statistics indicate that the level of economic activity has improved in recent months after being weaker than expected at the end of last year. i believe that this indicates that the assessment of economic activity in sweden that we made in the inflation report still largely holds true. as regards the labour market, it was noted in the inflation report that there had been an improvement and that there is a lot to indicate that employment will continue to increase in future. since the inflation report, the number of employed has developed largely as we estimated in february. the supply of labour has at the same time increased slightly more than expected. the information received does not change the overall assessment that there has been a gradual improvement in the labour market situation, however. our assessment in the inflation report was that inflation would increase in future although at a moderate rate. recently, energy prices have increased more than expected. electricity prices have gone up while the rising oil price has led to higher prices for petrol and heating oil. overall, this has contributed to inflation being higher than forecast in the inflation report. in march, und1x inflation increased to 1. 2 per cent per year while cpi increased by 1. 1 per cent. the outcome was 0. 3 percentage points higher than forecast in the inflation report ( for both cpi and und1x ). inflation can be expected to be somewhat higher than this forecast for some time to come due to the higher energy prices, although, it is a matter, as i see it, of changes in a rather short time perspective. however, as we have earlier pointed out, there is also reason to assume gradually increasing inflationary pressures as the economic upswing leads to a rise in capacity utilisation both in sweden and abroad. the basic assessment of inflation developments over the next few years still stands, given the new information received since the inflation report. my overall conclusion is that the new information received since the inflation report in february mainly confirms the picture then outlined of economic activity in sweden, while

number has now risen to 5. 5 million. but perhaps what is more important than the increase in the number of branches or bank accounts is the fact that many of the new entrants into the banking market, all owned by the private sector and predominantly from other african countries, are bringing unique attributes to banking in uganda. in particular, they are able to draw upon expertise in serving the specific needs of businesses and households which has been gained in the markets of their parent banks, particularly with regard to new products or innovative ways of delivering services to customers. for example, imperial bank offers banking products such as structured warehouse financing, supply chain financing and asset financing to a wide range of its clients in the small and medium size enterprise and mid - corporate segments of the business sector. bis central bankers ’ speeches competition within the banking market takes many different forms. if new banks are to expand their market share, they must be able to carve out a viable niche in the market and offer their customers financial products and services which cannot be obtained from their competitors. new entrants must grow in order to survive in the banking market, because there are important economies of scale to be realised in banking. with the implementation of the common market in the east african community, competition will intensify and efficiency and quality of service will be paramount for success in the market place. to survive, banks will have to find ways of reducing their costs and passing these reductions onto their customers and seek to develop innovative quality products for the market. with these remarks, i once again thank the shareholders, the board of directors and management of imperial bank for demonstrating their commitment to serve the people of uganda through the expansion of the branch network. this will also contribute to advancing the bank of uganda ’ s financial inclusion agenda, which involves spreading access to formal financial services to those sections of the population which currently lack access. it is now my honor and great pleasure to declare the imperial bank ’ s acacia mall kampala branch officially inaugurated. thank you for listening. bis central bankers ’ speeches