development, it has further expanded the set of opportunities for the participation by the international financial community and thus increases the inter - linkages both within and between economic regions of the world. in enhancing these new linkages and greater integration, islamic finance is envisaged to contribute towards unlocking new potentials that would bring mutual benefits, and in doing so, enhance our overall prospects. thank you.

that enable early detection of potential slippage in revenue and expenditure during the fiscal year. the new stability law demands significant improvements in the transparency of general government conduct, particularly in relation to the budget outturn figures for regional and local government, which should be released with the same periodicity, degree of detail, lag and ready accessibility as central government data. third, the mechanisms enabling the prompt correction of any potential slippage must be reinforced. once again, the stability law includes new instruments, such as the automatic adjustment of regional government spending in specific cases of non - compliance, the possibility of establishing sanctions and also of central government imposing adjustment measures. these new provisions may be effective in ensuring discipline, a matter that is all the more important following the extraordinary measures adopted by the state to offer liquidity support to regional and local government, such funds being conditional upon compliance with adjustment plans. and, fourth, the reinforcement of the credibility of the fiscal consolidation process takes on great importance in the current situation of the sovereign debt crisis. it may be of help here to establish a medium - term budgetary horizon providing sufficient details of the expected trend of public revenue and spending and the assumptions on which they are based, and on the contents of the planned measures and the expected effect they will have. that would all contribute to reducing economic agents ’ uncertainty and would help identify the problems ahead in the medium term. in the fiscal consolidation process, the long - term perspective is fundamental. over this horizon, it is well known that the biggest challenge to public finances stems from the pressure that population ageing will exert on specific expenditure items, particularly pensions spending. following the social security reform approved in july 2011, a specific definition is bis central bankers ’ speeches now needed of the so - called “ sustainability factor ”, which should result in an automatic adjustment of the system ’ s parameters if imbalances are detected in the long run. the 2013 budget before moving on to the budget for 2013, i would like to specify the framework for debate of the draft legislation. spain is a very decentralised country in terms of public spending, more so than certain countries with a federal political structure. currently, almost half the consolidated public spending in spain, i. e. net of transfers between general government sectors, is by regional and local government. based on figures for 2011, central government was responsible for only 22 % of total public spending ; regional government for 34 % ; local government for 12 % ; and the social security system for