time, it is of the utmost importance that substantial and far - reaching structural reforms be implemented urgently in the euro area in order to strengthen its growth potential, competitiveness and flexibility. in particular, countries which have high fiscal and external deficits or which are suffering from a loss of competitiveness should embark on comprehensive economic reforms. in the case of product markets, policies that enhance competition and innovation should, in particular, be further pursued to speed up restructuring and to bring about improvements in productivity. regarding the labour market, the priority must be to enhance wage flexibility and incentives to work, and to remove labour market rigidities. the governing council, in line with the ecb ’ s opinion of 17 february 2011 on the six legislative proposals on economic governance, urges the ecofin council, the european parliament and the european commission to agree, in the context of their “ trialogue ”, on more stringent requirements, more automaticity in the procedures and a clearer focus on the most vulnerable countries with losses in competitiveness. finally, the governing council welcomes the economic and financial adjustment programme which was agreed by the portuguese government following the successful conclusion of the negotiations with the european commission, in liaison with the ecb, and the international monetary fund. the programme contains the necessary elements to bring about a sustainable stabilisation of the portuguese economy. it addresses in a decisive manner the economic and financial causes underlying current market concerns and will thereby contribute to restoring confidence and safeguarding financial stability in the euro area. the governing council welcomes the commitment of the portuguese public authorities to take all the necessary measures to achieve the objectives of the programme. it considers very important the broad political support for the adjustment programme, which enhances the overall credibility of the programme. we are now at your disposal for questions. bis central bankers ’ speeches

dimitar bogov : we will need foreign loans also in the coming years interview with mr dimitar bogov, governor of the national bank of the republic of macedonia, in utrinski vesnik, conducted by ms nina nineska - fidanoska and published on 22 august 2013. * * * mr. bogov, in june, lending grew by only 3. 7 percent, which is considered a very low rate. few months ago, businessmen called for an annual credit growth rate of 8 to 10 percent. is there a chance to reach that goal and when? it is usually considered that credit growth should be two times the nominal growth of the gross domestic product. this means that if we want to achieve long - term real gdp growth of some four to five percent and inflation of two to three percent, then certainly i would say that credit growth of 10 to 15 percent is normal and desirable. but we were in a period of slower economic growth, so that the credit growth rate was relatively low in the last year. this year it continued, and in june we had an annual credit growth rate of 3. 7 percent. it is low, but in line with our projections. for the entire year we expect credit growth of 7 percent and we believe we will achieve that rate. in june and july we already have a more intensive monthly credit growth compared to the previous months and we expect that trend to continue. for the next year, we are more optimistic, and in our projections we expect credit growth of up to 9 percent. in july, the national bank of the republic of macedonia made changes in the reserve requirement and also reduced the key interest rate to 3. 25 percent, which is the historically lowest level. when do you expect the effects? we made some changes, so that we reduced the reserve requirement ratio for denar deposits and we increased that for the foreign currency deposits. our goal is to stimulate denar saving at the expense of the saving in foreign currency, which in this way will become more expensive, while saving in denars will become cheaper. shortly after that, we reduced the key interest rate to 3. 25 percent, thus sending a signal to the banks that there is room for greater lending activity. even that small amount of loans does not go to the companies, but mainly to the citizens. why is that so and when will it change? in 2009, soon after the outbreak of the global economic crisis, banks here immediately stopped lending to households