##ence and the need to reinforce it in what remains a challenging and highly uncertain environment. in this context, i ’ ll start by giving an overview of the outlook for the macro - nancial environment and outline the central bank ’ s priorities for the year ahead. finally, i will set out some proposals for our approach to engagement. https : / / www. centralbank. ie / news / article / speech - managing - risk - rebuilding - resilience - governor - gabriel - makhlouf - 11 - feb - 2021 1 / 7 11 / 02 / 2021 " managing risk, rebuilding resilience " governor gabriel makhlouf covid - 19 and the macro - nancial outlook the macro - nancial outlook for the global economy is of course highly contingent on how the covid - 19 pandemic develops. in the near term, the outlook has deteriorated and become more uncertain. since december, almost two - thirds of oecd countries have increased the stringency of measures to protect public health in response to the pandemic. 2 the measures taken have triggered an extraordinary economic shock. high frequency indicators suggest that the restrictions have had an important impact on activity, particularly consumer spending3 we are seeing the largest peacetime global contraction since the great depression. the economic policy response to the pandemic has had two strands. the rst, and most important, has been the scal policy response with actions to contain, cushion, and counteract the impact on households and rms. the second strand has seen other policymakers respond with a range of monetary, macro and micro prudential actions to prevent ampli cation of the shock by the nancial system. vaccines offer great hope that the virus can be defeated. but distribution around the world will take time, creating an ongoing need for containment measures. and we have yet to fully understand the implications around new strains of the virus. but the more prolonged the need for measures to contain the pandemic, the greater the risk that liquidity problems will evolve into solvency pressures for affected businesses, increased risk of nancial dif culties for households, and greater challenges for the nancial system and wider economy. we cannot be complacent about potential risks to nancial stability. while the medium term is uncertain, what we have seen to date globally is the pandemic highlighted pre - existing vulnerabilities, including rising corporate debt, fragility in non - banks, increasing sovereign debt

radovan jelasic : dinar products and declining interest rates in serbia speech by mr radovan jelasic, governor of the national bank of serbia, at the promotion of “ pure ” dinar credit of hvb bank, belgrade, 18 october 2006. * * * dear ladies and gentlemen, my participation in this conference is motivated by two reasons : dinar products and decline in interest rates! i am happy to say that today we are all able to conclude that the national bank of serbia was right when it announced that interest rates will subside and that banks will expand their credit offer so as for it to include “ pure ” dinar credits. hvb bank has recently cut its effective interest rates on foreign currency credits and has now launched a new product – an authentic dinar cash credit, with no revaluation. some other banks have also announced their intention to reduce interest rates on credits in euros. present developments only go to confirm what the nbs has claimed, in response to criticisms purporting that the restrictive measures of the national bank are entirely to blame for the high cost of credits in serbia : inflation needs to decline first, and only then can we count on a gradual decline in interest rates. and also, a drop in inflation is an essential precondition to increasing trust in the domestic currency and its use. serbia is on the right track to achieving both these objectives! it is precisely the restrictive monetary policy of the nbs that gave a decisive contribution to a decline in inflation, and to the fact that, now that the policy interest rate on two - week repo operations amounts to 18 percent, with annual inflation dropping to 11. 6 % in september, banks are starting to reduce their interest rates on credits, even though the much criticized measure of the central bank – increase in the reserve requirement on short - term external borrowing of banks – introduced as far back as may this year, is still in force. at the same time, the share of reserve requirement on external credits with maturity of up to two years, the ratio on which was raised from 40 to 60 percent, in total calculated reserve requirement is only 17. 5 %. when this measure was first introduced, this share was 30. 3 percent. in the first eight months this year, the sum of total credits increased by over csd 100 billion, which plainly shows that measures that the nbs enacted with the aim of bringing down inflation did not have a negative effect on either lending activity