##able economic matrices. at this juncture, with the global crisis behind us and all the lessons learned, i think as policy makers we are more knowledgeable to reap the benefits of the eu entrance more wisely, and to better deal with the challenges ahead. at this point i must say, that macedonian economy is already well integrated both in terms of trade and finance with the eu. more than 70 % of the total trade is with eu countries, the foreign owned banks are mostly of eu origin, and the bulk of financial flows comes from eu. very importantly, these financial flows went in export – oriented and more productive segments, that fortified the fundaments of the economy, provided impetus to growth and did not add to inflationary pressures, or pressures on foreign reserves. and, this model should actually be the proper way to proceed after the eu entrance, as well. less reliance on short - term volatile financial flows, and import of longer term capital is the only way to enhance the productivity of the economy and improve its competitiveness. very often, the entrance on the large eu common market of goods, services, capital and labor, not only is connected to faster growth and real convergence, but also to convergence in price levels. as wages start to increase, and gradual shift towards consumption of more expensive services occurs, the price level might elevate as well, thus posing challenges for monetary policy. these price pressures can be avoided by boosting the 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches productivity, thus creating more favorable environment for the monetary policy, without pressures on the interest rates. the second angle that should be pinpointed is the implication that eu entrance does have on the further monetary integration, the adoption of the euro as a single currency and the role that the national central bank would have in this context. entering the eu, for the nbrm would automatically mean participation in the european system of central banks ( escb ). in this manner, we are getting much closer to europe in the field of central banking. the staff of the central bank becomes part of many committees, subcommittees and working groups of the escb, which is crucial ingredient for strengthening the institutional capacity for policy making. and this is vital for the future steps, as the eu membership, for small and open economy, with high level of euroization and fixed exchange rates would inevitable imply need for very serious preparations for the euro adoption. it requires passing the so - called test period, staying in the er

08 / 09 / 2017 interest rate benchmarks | speeches | rba speech interest rate benchmarks guy debelle [ * ] deputy governor finsia signature event : the regulators sydney – 8 september 2017 today i am going to talk again about interest rate benchmarks, as recently there have been some important developments internationally and in australia. [ 1 ] these benchmarks are at the heart of the plumbing of the financial system. they are widely referenced in financial contracts. corporate borrowing rates are often priced as a spread to an interest rate benchmark. many derivative contracts are based on them, as are most asset - backed securities. in light of the issues around the london inter - bank offered rate ( libor ) and other benchmarks that have arisen over the past decade, there has been an ongoing global reform effort to improve the functioning of interest rate benchmarks. i will focus on the recent announcement by the uk financial conduct authority ( fca ) on the future of libor, and the implications of this for australian financial markets. i will then summarise the current state of play in australia, particularly for the major interest rate benchmark, the bank bill swap rate ( bbsw ). our aim is to ensure that bbsw remains a robust benchmark for the long term. i will also discuss the important role for ‘ risk - free ’ interest rates as an alternative to credit - based benchmarks such as bbsw and libor. the future of libor and the implications for australia libor is the key interest rate benchmark for several major currencies, including the us dollar and british pound. just over a month ago, andrew bailey, who heads the fca which regulates libor, raised some serious questions about the sustainability of libor. [ 2 ] the key problem he identified is that there are not enough transactions in the short - term wholesale funding market for banks to anchor the benchmark. the banks that make the submissions used to calculate libor are uncomfortable about continuing to do this, as they have to rely mainly on their ‘ expert judgment ’ in determining where libor should be rather than on actual transactions. to prevent libor from abruptly ceasing to exist, the fca has received assurances from the current banks on the libor panel that they will continue to submit their estimates to sustain libor until the end of 2021. but http : / / www. rba. gov. au / speeches / 2017 / sp - dg - 2017 - 09 -