sure that serbia pays one of the lowest gas prices during this energy crisis. second, the prices of basic foodstuffs have been temporarily capped and the government intervened several times by tapping its commodity reserves in order to supply the market with cheaper products. third, the government of the republic of serbia relinquished the regular january increase in excise tax on petroleum products, preventing a further rise in fuel prices on this account. fourth, petroleum product and gas prices have been temporarily capped as well. on top of all this, significant one - off payments were made to pensioners and youth. in this context, i would like to emphasize several indicators of improvement in the labour market in the last five years : since 2016 the minimum labour price has increased at the annual rate of around 9 % – its nominal increase during that period equals 67 %, and real more than 50 %. the coverage of the average consumer basket by the average wage went up from 66. 5 % to 84. 8 %, and of the minimum consumer basket from 60. 0 % to 80. 7 %. formal employment in the private sector increased by 284 thousand or by 20. 5 %. all of this is an indicator of the rise in the living standard. improving the living standard lies at the core of all policies implemented over the past ten years and remains a priority in the years ahead. in the meantime, additional disturbances have occurred in the global market in the past ten days. due to the current situation in the world, including trends in the energy and food markets, we have prepared a comprehensive programme to protect the population and the economy from the effects that may occur on the supply side, as well as from the price effects. president vucic presented the details of the programme that is already being implemented, as well as the fact that energy and commodity reserves have been provided as planned, which is part of our response to current global events and shocks in the world market. i will repeat, because i think it is important, that reserves of everything have been created in serbia on time – energy and commodity reserves, foreign exchange reserves, as well as foreign cash. ( slide 8 ) the fourth topic i will speak about today concerns the exchange rate of the dinar and the competitiveness of our economy. i will reiterate the facts i have often stated in the public. first, it is the favourable business conditions and not price factors that elevate the competitiveness of the domestic economy in the long run. second, even if the

efforts it has been avoided. according to our estimates, in serbia, if we did not react fast and strong, our gdp would have fallen by more than 6 % last year, and the recovery would have taken three to five years, instead of one. the price of non - responding would have been too high, and it would be measured by undermined stability, lost jobs and lost billions of euros of potential gdp. at the beginning i said that serbia entered the crisis in excellent shape : inflation has been under our control for more than seven years, 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches we have built a strong fiscal position we resolved the npl legacy – npls are no longer an issue in serbia, we increased our fx reserves as a good buffer against external shocks, we strongly improved our external position. i gave just some results because one of the conclusions by all key players is that the countries that had built good fundamentals before the crisis were in a better position to react strongly and swiftly by large and timely support programmes. the national bank of serbia was the first institution in the country to react at the beginning of the crisis. to stimulate the economy, the nbs reacted timely and forcefully, by using different instruments. we lowered the key policy rate four times - to 1 %, and we kept good access to finance and favourable financing conditions for the government, banks and the private sector. the nbs was the lender of first resort in times when this was needed the most. to provide liquidity we used different monetary operations of different maturities and currencies, to send a clear signal that the central bank will be there to support people and companies, and to calm the market and prevent potential panic. we used repo purchase auctions, bilateral outright purchase of government securities in the secondary market, and we also included corporate bonds in collateral for our monetary operations. the nbs was also among the first regulators to introduce a moratorium for all debtors. also, by several measures we additionally facilitated access to financing for our households, especially to housing financing. when it was needed, the nbs intervened in the fx market and kept relative stability of the dinar exchange rate against the euro, as this is one of the most important pillars of the overall macroeconomic stability in serbia. on top of this, our communication was clear – to shocks of temporary nature we respond by temporary measures. when it comes to the government response, we had three well - calibrated packages. the