supports lowering the interest rate. the exchange rate is in an appreciation trend – we saw a sharp appreciation at the beginning of 2013 and moderation in the trend in recent months. another area that we have been dealing with a lot recently is the housing market. the volume of activity, transactions and mortgages, is very high, housing prices continue to increase, and there is significant growth in the volume of building starts and building completions. should it continue at appropriate levels, this growth is expected to lead to moderation in the volume of homes, although we still do not see this moderation. we also look at various indicators that deal with financial stability. beyond the collection of data that i have presented here briefly, we use a macroeconomic model in order to assess the developments in the market, and to discuss the effects of various policy scenarios on activity in the market, inflation, and so forth. the framework in which we assess such scenarios is a very complex model, called the dsge model, which is used by many central banks operating within an inflation targeting regime. this model combines the connections between the various economic units in the market and the economic variables, both nominal and real, within one coherent framework. the model enables us to make simulations and examine what the effect would be of alternative policy paths, as well as exogenous shocks, on inflation and on economic activity. we look at the various transmission channels, as reflected in the model, from the bank of israel interest rate and the other economic variables to the target variables – inflation and the volume of economic activity. as such, this is the conceptual framework on the basis of which we make policy decisions. if we glance at the discussions during which we made the interest rate decision for march, we looked at a decline in the inflation environment, a slowdown in gdp and business product growth, weakness in the labor market, the cumulative appreciation of the shekel, and slow and moderate recovery within a low inflation environment and monetary accommodation in the global market. all of these considerations supported monetary expansion, meaning a reduction in the interest rate. against these considerations, there is, of course, the housing market and the continued increase in home prices. in this context, i will mention that there are other tools available to the supervisor of banks in order to reduce the risks in this market, and we have used these tools. so, this is the policy decision process that we employ at the bank of israel. we can think of various issues that studies written

our " fintech 2025 " strategy, we have been expanding the fintech - savvy workforce through a series of internship and industry programmes such as the fintech career accelerator scheme ( fcas ) and the industry project masters network ( ipmn ) scheme. these programmes have nurtured more than 1, 500 young talents so far, and we are pleased to see that the 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches majority of them have continued their careers in the finance and fintech industries upon graduation. the hkma recognises the tremendous potential of collaborative efforts between the industry and academia to develop a sustainable local talent pipeline. to this end, the hkma has cooperated with various strategic partners, including bloomberg, to grow allround talent, through a series of initiatives, including the gba fintech talent initiative. when it comes to fintech and talent development, we should definitely leverage our inherent strengths and opportunities, including our connection with mainland china, especially the gba, which has been recognised as an emerging economic, financial and technology powerhouse. by capitalising on the connection with other gba cities, hong kong can tap into new opportunities by importing technology expertise, market experience and entrepreneurial flair, while enriching our own talent pool. this gba integration allows for seamless collaboration, facilitating knowledge transfer and the sharing of best practices across the boundary. in recent years, cross - boundary collaboration has become a key driver of fintech development. our flagship project, the multi - cbdc platform mbridge is a very good example. launched in partnership with the digital currency institute of the people's bank of china ( pboc ) and two other central banking institutions, mbridge aims to deploy blockchain technology to address key pain points in cross - border payments to make them cheaper, faster and more transparent. the hkma is also working closely with the pboc to establish a cross - boundary linkage between hong kong's faster payment system ( fps ) and the mainland's internet banking payment system ( ibps ) to facilitate instant small - value cross - boundary remittances around - the - clock. beyond public sector partnerships, the private sector is increasingly engaged in crossboundary collaboration, with fintech firms and financial institutions playing important roles in innovative product development, cross - boundary payments, digital banking, trade financing, and more. with the gba positioned as a hub for fintech, professionals in this field can antici