2000, bringing its share to 14 % of the country ’ s total exports ( right - hand side of slide 2 ). asian countries have made substantial progress in developing their financial markets since the asian crisis at the end of the 1990s. most financial markets in the region have become significantly more liquid and diversified than they were 15 years ago thanks to gradual liberalisation of capital flows, better financial market infrastructure and an expanding domestic investor base. hong kong and singapore now rank among the world ’ s most important financial centres. between 2003 and 2013, asian stock markets ’ contribution to global market capitalisation increased from approximately 20 % to over 30 %. 1 bond issues denominated in local currencies have also gained steadily in importance. this market quadrupled in size between 2005 and 2014 and now totals some usd 8, 000 billion. 2 equally, asian financial centres have made substantial inroads into global foreign exchange markets in recent years ( left - hand side of slide 3 ). in 2013, almost one - fifth of global foreign exchange transactions took place in singapore, japan, hong kong and australia. while these centres have not yet reached the uk level, they are now almost on a par with the us. singapore last year supplanted japan as the world ’ s third - largest foreign exchange trading centre ( righthand side of slide 3 ). 3 against this backdrop, these markets have understandably gained in significance for the snb, too, which explains why we decided to open a branch office with eight staff in singapore in mid - 2013. this office is primarily significant from the point of view of investment policy, and to date our expectations on this score have been met in full. our presence on the ground in singapore enables us to manage our asia - pacific portfolio much more effectively. the importance of being able to operate on the asian bond and stock markets during local trading hours, for instance, has been confirmed. our office there also allows us to manage a host of on - site relationships, which deepens our understanding of asian financial markets – and economies in general. moreover, having a local presence makes it easier for us to monitor and enforce the minimum exchange rate round the clock, thereby contributing to the implementation of monetary policy. the growing importance of asia is also reflected in our foreign exchange reserves. as i mentioned earlier, given the enormous increase in our foreign exchange reserves, the world federation of exchanges. www. world - exchanges. org, statistics / annual query tool. asian development bank

philipp hildebrand : ( the ) productivity ( imperative ) summary of a speech by mr philipp hildebrand, vice - chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at avenir suisse, zurich, 24 september 2007. the complete speech can be found in german on the swiss national banka€™s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * just a few years ago, the weak growth of the swiss economy was a dominant topic in public debate. for four years now, the economy has been advancing strongly. is this merely a cyclical boom? or has structural change taken place, affecting both productivity and the associated potential growth path? this would have far - reaching implications, not least for monetary policy. a number of factors indicate that structural change is indeed occurring and that this could ultimately result in an increase in the underlying productivity trend. however, time lags and cyclical distortions make it difficult to identify such changes.