jorgovanka tabakovic : overview of recent monetary and macroeconomic trends in serbia introductory speech by dr jorgovanka tabakovic, governor of the national bank of serbia, at the presentation of the inflation report - august 2016, belgrade, 17 august 2016. * * * ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, welcome to the presentation of the august inflation report. as always, we will give you an overview of monetary and macroeconomic trends for the period since the previous report and set out our expectations for 2016 and 2017. however, before we move on to this, i would like to share with you a few thoughts about a much longer period, because recently it was four years since my appointment as the governor of the national bank of serbia. together with us you were witnesses to the numerous challenges we faced, particularly from the international environment. despite the challenges, the national bank of serbia has achieved admirable results – inflation is low and stable today as it has been for three years straight, which was not the case earlier. our good results are not only due to global circumstances and low inflation abroad, because inflation in the international environment was around 2 % rather long, while at the same time it was much higher and more volatile in serbia. it was the reduction in serbia ’ s internal and external imbalances and the maintaining of relative stability of the exchange rate that were instrumental to bringing inflation in serbia to a level comparable to that of other countries. at the same time, deflation was averted. expectations of market participants that inflation will remain low for the next two years represent another indicator of confidence in the national bank of serbia and the measures it implements. chart 2 one - year ahead inflation expectations * and target chart 1 consumer prices and target tolerance band ( y - o - y rates, in % ) tolerance band ( y - o - y rates, in % ) 5. 5 4. 0 2. 5 1. 2 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 sources : sors and nbs calculation. corporate sector financial sector ( ninamedia ) financial sector ( bloomberg ) target tolerance band targeted inflation consumer prices ( cpi ) targeted inflation target tolerance band 2, 8 2, 0 2, 0 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 10 1 4 7 sources :

randall s kroszner : improving the infrastructure for non - agency mortgage - backed securities speech by mr randall s kroszner, member of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, at the federal reserve system conference on housing and mortgage markets, washington dc, 4 december 2008. the original speech, which contains a link to the documents mentioned, can be found on the us federal reserve system ’ s website. * * * i very much appreciate the opportunity to participate in this conference and to hear your insights firsthand about such a range of important topics. as you know, housing markets are weak. sales of new homes and of existing homes are well below their respective peaks around the middle of this decade. house prices have fallen sharply – the national price index published by the federal housing finance agency is down almost 8 percent from its high in the spring of 2007, and the case - shiller national index is down more than 20 percent from its peak about 2 - 1 / 2 years ago. residential construction has remained weak, with single - family housing starts having declined to less than a third the number seen early in 2006. even with the drop in homebuilding, the inventory of unsold new homes represents more than 10 months'supply at the recent pace of sales. taken together, these data suggest continuing near - term challenges for stabilization of the housing market. with the plunge in home sales and house prices as well as very tight lending conditions, mortgage borrowing by households has fallen sharply over the past two years or so. indeed, the latest information suggests that, on net, home mortgage debt may not have increased at all since the spring. moreover, most of the new mortgages that were originated in the past several months were funded with mortgage - backed securities ( mbs ) guaranteed by the government housing agencies – fannie mae, freddie mac, and ginnie mae. that is, origination of mortgages not eligible for a government guarantee has fallen dramatically as issuance of private - label mbs has virtually come to a halt this year. the rapid deterioration in credit quality of mortgages in subprime and so - called alt - a mbs pools – and the subsequent severe rating downgrades of the securities they backed – has significantly eroded the value of and investor confidence in private - label mbs. in my remarks today, i would like to suggest some fundamental changes in the structure of private - label mbs that might help a recovery, over time, in investor