wealth for consumers and the economy as a whole. the losses are real and the consequences severe for many individuals and many businesses. moreover, monetary policy cannot paper over these losses, nor should it try to do so. households and businesses, nevertheless, continue to make progress on restoring the health of their balance sheets by paying down debt and increasing savings. most economists, including me, believe that this process will continue into 2012. the labor market has grown stronger in recent months. although there are still too many people unemployed in our region and the nation, i am encouraged by the most recent employment reports. the january employment report showed a net gain of 243, 000 jobs, and revisions to november and december added another 60, 000 jobs to the recovery. some i should note the usual disclaimer that my views are my own and not necessarily those of the federal reserve board or my colleagues on the federal open market committee. bis central bankers ’ speeches have downplayed the report, suggesting that one good data point does not make a trend, and i wholeheartedly agree. but what we have seen is more than one data point. net employment gains were 103, 000 in october, 157, 000 in november, 203, 000 in december, and 243, 000 in january – a clear positive trend. the household survey also reported a significant decline in the unemployment rate. here, too, the trend is encouraging – 8. 9 percent in october, 8. 7 in november, 8. 5 in december, and 8. 3 in january. that is the lowest level in nearly three years. as growth continues and strengthens, i expect further gradual declines in the unemployment rate, with the rate falling to 8 percent or less, by the end of 2012. in our district, all three states ended 2011 with lower unemployment rates. new jersey ’ s rate, at about 9 percent, is still higher than the national average, but delaware ’ s and pennsylvania ’ s were below the national average, with rates of 7. 4 and 7. 6 percent, respectively. as we continue down the road to recovery, i expect we will face further hiccups along the way. one significant risk is the potential effects of the continuing sovereign debt crisis in europe. the economic slowdown in the euro zone will likely restrain u. s. exports. and while strains in financial markets have been limited to european institutions so far, we must continue to monitor events to ensure that there are no adverse spillovers to u.

well as activities on the acceptance of unionpay cards in the dinacard acceptance network. as the future belongs to the young, from 13 november this year every student in the republic of serbia can apply for a dinacard student payment card, with numerous benefits. this was made possible in cooperation with our friends from unionpay, which is another indicator of friendship and cooperation between our two countries. in october 2018, we launched the system for instant payments, as one of the most cutting - edge methods of payment that we constantly improve with numerous services. the system has operated successfully ever since and has been breaking records in terms of the number of executed transactions almost on a daily basis. this is at the same time the best proof that everything that is useful quickly takes hold and becomes the norm. we also enabled the provision of financial services at a distance, which laid the foundations for further digitalisation of a number of banking services that have become normal in the modern financial system. that we were right in doing so is best confirmed by the 52 % average annual growth in the number of concluded distance contracts. an inevitable trend in the use of digital financial services is embodied in the multi - year process of modernisation of mobile banking applications by banks, at the initiative and 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches with the support of the national bank of serbia. it is precisely in mobile banking that since 2013 we have seen the 44 % average annual increase in the number of the newly registered users. at the same time, the number of transactions carried out via mbanking recorded the sharpest percentage rise compared to other available instruments for retail payments – on average, a rise of 70 % each year. dear friends, much of what we can hear about digitalisation lately is doom and gloom, but there is no dilemma that digitalisation is a huge potential for progress. however, there is also awareness that new technologies bring, at the same time, numerous risks in terms of cyber security, data protection or market concentration. we work in the new era, new finance, new opportunities, but also and new risks! and this is something, we as responsible regulatory authorities, have to reckon with. it is equally important that we make sure that the digital transformation does not increase the gap between unequals. it is critical that we cherish and promote learning! our nikola tesla used to say that of all the frictional resistances, the one that most retards human movement is ignorance, while a chinese prove