a proactive central bank, the bank of mauritius has embarked on a journey to further accompany the development of the financial market. the bank of mauritius has been broadening the depth of our financial market, including through the release of a guideline for the issue of money market instruments in 2019. the objective is to 1 / 7 bis - central bankers'speeches introduce a minimum set of requirements for issuers to follow while at the same time protecting potential investors. there has been growing interest from corporates for the issuance of mmis on the local market, with a view to lowering their short - term funding cost. three companies have been approved by the bank of mauritius to act as issuing and paying agent ( ipa ) to assist mmi issuers. the bank of mauritius has granted five mmis licences since the introduction of the guideline, for a total amount of rs7. 2 billion of which rs2. 0 billion was issued as recently as this month. in july 2023, the reputation of mauritius as an ifc was further consolidated through two important decisions by international credit rating agencies. standard & poor's confirmed the'investment grade'status of mauritius - the only ifc with such a rating across africa, while moody's released a credit opinion upgrading the scorecard - indicated outcome of mauritius from baa3 - ba2 in may 2023 to currently baa1 - baa3. going forward, we can only expect a better outlook for the country's balance of payments and for its international liquidity position. at the level of the bank of mauritius, we continue to work together with all stakeholders through the committee on international developments to share information and discuss latest updates in view of improving the ratings of mauritius. ladies and gentlemen i will not do justice if i fail to mention the improvement in the foreign exchange market operations. the situation has markedly improved since the pandemic, thereby resulting in a scaling down of the frequency and magnitude of the bank of mauritius fx intervention on the domestic fx market. fx injections by the bank of mauritius, which amounted to usd164 million since beginning of the year, are much lower than the amount of usd621. 8 million during the same period last year and usd1, 132 million during the same period in 2021. however, as this period of the year is tantamount to the building of end - of - year stocks, the bank of mauritius stands ready to provide support to the fx market in case of need.

mario draghi : ecb press conference – introductory statement introductory statement by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank, frankfurt am main, 15 april 2015. * * * ladies and gentlemen, the vice - president and i are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, and in line with our forward guidance, we decided to keep the key ecb interest rates unchanged. as regards non - standard monetary policy measures, on 9 march we started purchasing euro - denominated public sector securities as part of our expanded asset purchase programme, which also comprises purchases of asset - backed securities and covered bonds. purchases are intended to run until the end of september 2016 and, in any case, until we see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation that is consistent with our aim of achieving inflation rates below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. when carrying out its assessment, the governing council will follow its monetary policy strategy and concentrate on trends in inflation, looking through unexpected outcomes in measured inflation in either direction if judged to be transient and to have no implication for the medium - term outlook for price stability. the implementation of our asset purchase programmes is proceeding smoothly, with volumes in line with the announced figure of €60 billion of securities per month. in addition, there is clear evidence that the monetary policy measures we have put in place are effective. financial market conditions and the cost of external finance for the private sector have eased considerably over the past months and borrowing conditions for firms and households have improved notably, with a pick - up in the demand for credit. looking ahead, our focus will be on the full implementation of our monetary policy measures. through these measures, we will contribute to a further improvement in the economic outlook, a reduction in economic slack and a recovery in money and credit growth. together, such developments will lead to a sustained return of inflation towards a level below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term and will underpin the firm anchoring of medium to long - term inflation expectations. let me now explain our assessment in greater detail, starting with the economic analysis. real gdp in the euro area rose by 0. 3 %, quarter on quarter, in the last quarter of 2014. domestic demand, especially private consumption, continued to be the main driver behind the ongoing recovery. the latest economic indicators, including survey data up to march, suggest that the euro area economy has gained further momentum since the end of