years, the contracts increased to approximately usd223 trillion. 22 the stock of legacy libor contracts would have been significantly less had market participants taken steps to actively transition from libor and not wait for the fca and intercontinental exchange ( ice ) benchmark administration to make more definitive statements about the cessation of all libor tenors. the mpg communications workstream ’ s action plan for year included indicative dates for the industry forums. the workstream partners with industry associations such as actsa, asisa, and basa to set an agenda that caters for the needs of their constituents. refer to isda ( 2021 ), the libor end game arrc is a group of private market participants convened by the federal reserve board and new york fed to ensure a successful transition from usd libor to the alternative secured overnight financing rate or sofr. randal k. quarles ( 2021 ), keynote remarks at the sofr symposium : the final year page 10 of 12 the exact date for the discontinuation of jibar will be determined and communicated soon after zaronia becomes available for use ; however, the sarb ’ s preference is for the transition period to be less than the five years it took for the libor transition. this is premised on progress achieved thus far and our ability to leverage off the work that has been completed in other jurisdictions. it would be unwise to re - invent the wheel and develop unique solutions that do not conform to international best practice. it is essential that each firm plans properly and ensures that sub - business units and business functions are ready to action the plan accordingly. the checklist for the implementation of the jibar transition and zaronia adoption23 should include : • establishing an enterprise - wide jibar transition programme across functions and businesses to manage the transition risks associated with jibar - related exposures ; • quantifying and monitoring jibar - related exposures throughout the transition ; • developing a product strategy that includes creating zaronia - based products ; • developing a plan to address the required changes to technological infrastructure, processes and people skills required for the jibar transition and the use of zaronia - based products ; • determining the financial accounting, taxation and regulation considerations ; • determining the financial, customer and legal implications that will result from the transition and plan for the inclusion of fallbacks in financial contracts ; • developing a communications strategy to proactively engage and educate internal and external stakeholders ; and • establishing a governance framework

economies, was not ready to step back in to support domestic demand, largely because of impaired balance sheets. households remain cautious, and the initial driver of the recovery – inventory adjustments – cannot continue indefinitely without a recovery in domestic demand. the withdrawal of the fiscal stimulus in the us is therefore coming at an inopportune time. in some countries, eg in europe, the approach has moved beyond mere fiscal stimulus withdrawal, as in the us, to one of fiscal austerity or consolidation. these measures, while necessary from a sustainability point of view, are coming at a time that is in effect premature, and could well undermine the pace of recovery further. for example, it has been estimated that an attempt by the greek government to reduce its budget deficit over the next three years by the 10 percentage points of gdp needed to bring that deficit into line with the maastricht criteria could cause gdp to decline over the next few years by between a cumulative 15 and 20 percent. the process of fiscal consolidation will place most of the burden of adjustment on monetary policies. in effect, we are likely to have low interest rates globally for much longer than previously thought. these low interest rates will counteract the negative growth impact of the fiscal consolidation. furthermore, central banks will, in all likelihood, need to continue to use their balance sheets to help support the financial markets. the pimco secular outlook has described the crisis as one of serial balance sheet contamination. it started off with private sector balance sheets being expanded unsustainably ( households and banks ). with too many balance sheets deleveraging simultaneously, threatening global depression, governments were forced to step in with their balance sheets which led to the current sovereign risk issues. now fiscal authorities have to deleverage, leaving the monetary authority balance sheets as the only ones left to prevent a downturn. at a regional level, it is the german balance sheet that is bailing out the rest of europe. there are concerns that this implies inflationary pressures down the line. given the size of output gaps, it is probably premature to be concerned about inflation at this stage in the advanced economies, but there are limits to what can be done by monetary policy on its own. there is also the risk of temptation to solve debt crises through monetisation. all this is also playing out in the political terrain, and social contracts are coming under considerable stress. nowhere more so than in europe where the social fabric in a number of countries is coming under strain