of the financial system. in europe, this primarily means the banks. since the banks themselves were in trouble, however, the impact of these monetary policy measures was much weaker than it should have otherwise been. the next wave of the financial crisis in europe hit in 2010. financial market tensions rose, resulting from growing market concerns about the sustainability of public finances, especially in greece. the strong links between banks and their sovereigns led to contagion that eventually also engulfed ireland, portugal and cyprus – all of which needed international rescue programmes. banking systems in vulnerable countries lost access to funding, financial intermediaries retreated behind national boundaries and markets began to bet on a breakup of the euro area. in july 2012, president draghi announced that the ecb would do “ whatever it takes ” to preserve the integrity of the euro area. this announcement was followed up in september with the launch of the outright monetary transactions programme, aimed at stabilising jittery sovereign bond markets. one could argue that, in the absence of a robust political response, the ecb stepped beyond the normal remit of monetary policy to counter a threat to the very existence of the euro area itself. although the programme itself was never activated, the fact that it was in place reduced tensions in financial markets and the risk of a breakup of the single currency area receded. economic activity began to recover in mid - 2013. since then, real gdp in the euro area has expanded steadily, if moderately, until by the second half of 2015 it had reached its pre - crisis level. however, the unemployment rate in the euro area remains relatively high, though it has fallen from a peak of above 12 % in 2013 to below 10 % today. against the backdrop of a tentative recovery, and with euro area banks having to clean up their balance sheets and restrict lending, inflation in the euro area began a prolonged downward trend. inflation in the euro area fell to 0. 4 % in 2014, zero in 2015 and just 0. 2 % last year. at these rates, inflation was considerably below the ecb target. indeed, by mid2014 disinflationary pressures in the euro area were clear. the concern was that inflation expectations, which were firmly anchored until then, could lose their moorings. this would lead to a self - sustained deflationary spiral that would further weaken the euro area economy. at this stage, the conduct of monetary policy ran into another constraint. as we have seen, by may 2009 the

, if we now had the levels of credit losses from 2011, as a consequence of poor risk management and unfavourable business environment, the banking sector would have operated at a loss in 2022 and would have had a drastically lower result in 2023! the development of digitalisation also had a positive bearing on strong growth of the scope and quality of services. net income from the purchase of foreign currency reflects the rising number and volume of transactions amid accelerated growth in foreign trade exchange, as well as the fact that serbia is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination! all of this would not have been possible had we not ensured relative stability of the dinar exchange rate, stability of the financial system, strong investment growth, improved business performance in the real sector, rising living standards, and the accelerated digitalisation of financial services! today, serbia has the lowest unemployment rate and the highest employment rate ever! because of all this, the difference between two absolute data, without considering the essence, has not made anyone an expert! quite the opposite. therefore, i once again ask individuals to act professionally and seriously when making evaluations that have no other purpose than to create noise and obstruct progress. this will not slow us down ; on the contrary. today, i will repeat here again that we do not exist for ourselves, no one, not even banks, but for our clients. and only in that interaction which gathers everyone's interests, can success last. therefore, the national assembly will soon discuss four extremely important laws that we have proposed, and for which a public debate has been held. these laws are important for financial services consumers, the banking industry, and the entire system. they are only a part of our response to the new conditions in which we live and work, and in july, i remind you, we introduced the concept of open banking into our regulatory framework. regarding current macroeconomic trends, i begin with the conclusion that we have brought inflation in serbia back within the target band, preserved the country's financial stability, as well as economic growth, which is returning to its high pre - pandemic levels! 3 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches 1. inflation entered our target band of 3 + / - 1. 5 pp in may, has remained there ever since and will stay there going forward. 2. the inflation profile allowed us to start easing our monetary policy in june, but at a cautious pace. since then, we have cut the key policy rate