general crash, abroad, here in mauritius these last two years have definitely not been the worst of years. indeed, all things considered, they shine through as some of our best, showing our fortitude and good judgment in weathering the storm. for here in mauritius there is : • no crisis of credit, • no crisis in housing, • no collapse of banks, and • regulation which is sound, just, timely and respected. what is more, here in mauritius : • inflation is coming down, • public debt is declining, • the economy is buoyant, • revenue is increasing, • growth remains positive and • you ( at least ) are all pretty safe in your jobs. here, i am reminded of the difference between recession and depression, as defined by harry truman : “ it ’ s a recession when your neighbour loses his job ; it ’ s a depression when you lose yours. ” now, as some of you may guess, i am very preoccupied these days but i am certainly not depressed. for we are : • improving our forecasting methods, • establishing more transparency, • already rolling out added support to enterprises in distress and to smes, • seeing more efficiency and more customer - friendly services, stimulated by our smart fresh high street entrants showing the old timers a new trick or two, and • moving towards a regional role as a clearing house for comesa. total assets in banks here continue to grow well, both in deposits and advances, with scarcely a whiff of the toxic fumes that are besetting our distant neighbours. thus, as you will appreciate from these brief remarks, my stewardship of the bank has not been as negative as some recent press coverage might lead the uninformed observer to believe. let me give you a few other strong positives. first, our management of foreign exchange reserves. our net international reserves increased by nearly rs18 billion to stand at rs96 billion in october 2009. that ’ s an increase of nearly 23 % since december 2006. this constitutes more that 40 weeks ’ imports, as against 38 weeks of imports in december 2007, notwithstanding the rise in the value of imports during this period. still on this topic, tiny mauritius became the 2nd country to participate in the fund ’ s gold sales this year, coming hard on the heels of the south asian elephant, india. 163 / 2009 second, the exchange rate. the rupee exchange rate index meri1 and meri2 which we rolled

have nonetheless moved forward in putting in place a risk - based supervisory approach where minimum prudential standards are set, behavior and conduct are monitored but the day - to - day strategic & operational decisions are clearly vested on the banks in the context of their fiduciary responsibilities and their governance mandate as good corporate players. we have earlier shown the committee mr. chairman the capital adequacy position of our universal & commercial banks, setting the bar higher than the basel accord. over and above that, we now have a core of dedicated specialists who are individually assigned to oversee specific institutions and have the technical expertise & training required for this critical function. we are instituting a new reportorial system – the frp – that is fully compliant with international accounting standards. perhaps most critically, we have regular and open discussions with our stakeholders so that issues can be thoroughly ventilated and a common understanding reached. the broad overlying issues all of these developments on the ground eventually mesh with the broad overlying issues. we have strengthened ourselves internally because we recognize that funding markets are irrevocably global where ups and downs necessarily cascade to everyone. the market no longer distinguishes where perturbations emanate ; it only appreciates how the contagion may be transmitted. in this respect, the current problems in the united states are certainly not an isolated “ us issue ”. there is no other stronger proof of this than the fact that various central banks have been working in concert to provide the necessary liquidity to prevent systemic dislocations. moving forward though, information will always remain to be the key ingredient so that appropriate measures can be calibrated for differentiated difficulties. information though is a two - way street : we will continue to oversee covered - institutions based on our risk - based supervisory framework while stakeholders need to remain faithful to the tenets of transparency and disclosure. macro - economic landscape we would like to reiterate that the country ’ s macro fundamentals remain sound and the economy has proven to be resilient. despite a general slowdown worldwide and skyrocketing oil prices, we continue to generate growth. our inflation numbers have indeed moved upwards and we recognize the difficulties that this brings. however, based on present commodity market conditions, we may soon see some relief. our international reserves continue to rise, reaching $ 36. 7 billion as of end - august. this represents 6 months worth of imports and the payments of goods and services, doubling our previous norm