##tails an annual growth rate of 3. 1 %. social security registrations, for their part, increased at a year - on - year rate of 3. 2 % in october, the same rate as the previous month, with registrations up 530, 000 compared with the same month a year earlier. the unemployment rate in the third quarter stood at 21. 2 %, down 2. 5 pp in the past 12 months. on our projections and those of the imf, it is within our reach by the end of 2016 to bring the unemployment rate below 20 % for the first time since 2010. these figures, though they attest to the improvement in the labour market, are still very high, abnormally so in the context of the euro area. they show the need to maintain a high rate of activity and to continue streamlining our labour market to prevent the combination of low activity and inadequate regulations, as so often occurred in the past, from driving job destruction. balance of payments and tourism our balance of payments performance in the past three years has been very favourable : from running a heavy deficit, with a negative current account balance up to 10 % of gdp in 2007, we are now in a different position, with few, but brief precedents in spanish economic history, marked by a current account surplus against a background of significant gdp growth and job creation. in the first nine months of this year ( the figures for september were published today ), the spanish economy ’ s net lending ( i. e. the cumulative surplus on the current account balance and the capital account balance ) stood at €13. 2 billion, compared with a surplus of €5. 8 billion in the same period of 2014 ; that is to say, it has more than doubled thanks to the reduction in net foreign interest payments. the widening of the surplus on capital account and the increase in the positive balance on goods and services, as a result of the improvement in the energy balance and, to a lesser extent, in the surplus on non - tourist services, were also a contributing factor. bis central bankers ’ speeches the tourism balance has contributed positively to the improvement in the current account balance. in the january - september period, the tourism surplus was €28. 4 billion, a very similar figure to that recorded in the same period in 2014. according to surveys by the iet ( institute for tourism studies ), the balearic islands was the second - ranked spanish region in terms of incoming international tourists and of their

should not be surprising that supervisors will raise capital requirements. respondents attribute what they view as excessive levels of conservatism to different sections of the new accord, including, for example, the calibration of capital requirements to both expected and unexpected losses. the treatment of credit losses is an issue which has attracted a lot of comments and which is, indeed, very important. as you will probably be aware, the present proposals to calibrate on the basis of expected and unexpected losses represented a compromise in the face of cross - country differences in accounting practices and supervisory authority regarding provisioning. but the committee will look into this important issue again, and i am optimistic that we can find a way to improve the present proposal. we have received similar concerns about conservatism in the securitisation proposals and in the treatment of “ double default ” risk, which is the risk that both a borrower and a guarantor would default on the same obligation. other questions have been raised on the incentive structure and on the recognition of insurance within the operational risk proposals. it is perhaps natural that the majority of comments address the minimum capital requirements, or pillar 1. this section of the new accord defines the capital charges in monetary terms for banks ’ exposures and activities. but one should not forget that the new accord is premised on three pillars, not just one. so i would like now to turn to the other two pillars, beginning with the importance – and benefits – of the proposals for the supervisory review of capital and home / host issues. afterwards, i would like to spend a moment on another topic which has been raised in the comments, namely the new accord and harmonisation of accounting standards. finally, i will conclude my presentation with some remarks about the current status of our discussions and our future work. supervisory review & home / host issues as you know, under the new accord the basel committee will recognise formally the role that supervisors play in ensuring that banks manage their risks and their capital needs appropriately. in the past, supervisors in each jurisdiction found their own ways to evaluate capital. this has sometimes resulted in an inconsistent application of the minimum requirements and the adoption of different expectations across countries and an increase in regulatory burden on banks. incorporating supervisory review into the international guidelines represents a genuine breakthrough for all of us. by developing guidelines for the supervisor ’ s evaluation of a bank ’ s internal capital allocation process, the committee believes that supervisors and banks will engage in more focused, more consistent, and