to the corporate sector, which resulted in accelerated growth in overall lending to the non - monetary sector to 6. 6 % in september, up from 6. 3 % in june. also, as the effects of the second moratorium waned off, y - o - y lending growth rate is expected to accelerate as of october. that the quality of bank assets has been preserved is best shown by the high capital adequacy, as well as the share of npls in total loans, which is below the pre - crisis level and measured 3. 55 % in september. when faced with the many challenges arising from the international environment, which we also anticipate in the coming period, it is crucial that serbia ’ s external and fiscal positions are much better than in previous crises, which is attributable to the responsible economic policy pursued in the previous period. at present, despite the pandemic, serbia is much better prepared for the challenges we are faced with in the international commodity and financial markets, including the monetary policy normalisation of leading central banks. a significant improvement in the current account of the balance of payments and the country ’ s fiscal position achieved in the prior years was not jeopardised even during the pandemic. the current account deficit in the nine months of this year was around 23 % lower than in the corresponding period last year, and equalled 3. 5 % of gdp. at the same time, the export of goods rose 30. 2 % y - o - y, and import by 24. 5 %. export growth would have been even higher had there not been disruptions in global value chains, which affect activity in our key export markets, notably in germany. we expect the share of the current account deficit in gdp to amount to around 4 % this year, and to between 4 % and 5 % in the medium term, with the full coverage by net inflows from fdi. also, we underline that we raised the projection of this year ’ s fdi to around eur 3. 4 bn. data for the first ten months suggest that the fdi inflow exceeded last year ’ s entire inflow and that it has already amounted to more than eur 3 bn since the start of the year. it is equally important that more than 60 % of these investments is channelled to tradable sectors, which contributes to growth in export capacities of the domestic economy and is the reason why, inter alia,

public finance deficit is presently about half of that in the u. s. or in japan. however, the crisis has revealed that not all of these gains in all countries were sustainable or balanced. some euro area countries did not follow rules for the conduct of national economic policies. between 1999 and 2008 significant fiscal and broader macroeconomic imbalances appeared. in a stability - orientated economic and monetary union, countries have to keep their fiscal house in order. fiscal and broader macroeconomic policies have to keep domestic demand in line with rates of sustainable growth and price stability. otherwise the result will be escalating unit labour costs, increases in public and private debt and losses in competitiveness. so if i sum up the “ epoque ” from the start of the euro until the global crisis, during the first nine years of the euro i would say that we could observe a remarkable success of monetary union as a whole and a much less flattering behaviour of the economic union, both because a number of countries were not respecting individually the rules of the stability and growth pact, and also because all member countries collectively did not exert the surveillance, which was commanded by the pact. in that sense, the global crisis, which intensified in 2008, has acted as revelatory. it marks the end of the first “ epoque ”. more than before, from now on it appears absolutely essential that all euro area countries adhere to the ambitious fiscal consolidation plans to which they have committed in front of their peers and restore the confidence of firms, households and investors in the soundness of public finances. fiscal consolidation is an essential first step on the path back to sustainable and balanced growth in the countries concerned, and ultimately to achieve the objectives of the treaty and the expectations of european citizens. it is equally essential that all euro area countries create a strong surveillance of their competitiveness indicators and of their imbalances as a second “ pillar ” of their governance. l ’ histoire evenementielle now let me turn to the near - term perspective, l ’ histoire evenementielle. for braudel this period of time concerned “ events, politics and people ” and how their real time activities shaped the course of history. this is a significant perspective because emu is a “ community of destiny ” that is responsible for taking measures to ensure the best interests of its citizens. thus an assessment of emu has to take into account how it responds to and manages challenges. the severe challenges since 2007 and,