period, banks are permitted to issue guarantees favouring other lending institutions in respect of infrastructure projects provided the bank issuing the guarantee takes a funded share in the project at least to the extent of five per cent of the project cost and undertakes normal credit appraisal, monitoring and follow up of the project. financing promoters ’ equity banks have been permitted to extend finance for funding promoter ’ s equity in cases where the proposal involves acquisition of share in an existing company engaged in implementing or operating an infrastructure project in india, subject to certain conditions. relaxation from capital market exposure in order to encourage lending by banks to the infrastructure, the promoters ’ shares in the spv of an infrastructure project pledged to the lending bank is permitted to be excluded from the banks ’ capital market exposure. permission to invest in unrated bonds in order to encourage banks to increase the flow of credit to infrastructure sector, banks are allowed to invest in unrated bonds of companies engaged in infrastructure activities within the ceiling of 10 per cent for unlisted non slr securities. relaxation in the classification of investments investment by banks in the long - term bonds issued by companies engaged in executing infrastructure projects and having a minimum residual maturity of seven years are allowed to be classified under the htm category, which means they need not be marked to market. relaxations relating to asset classification with effect from march 31, 2008, the infrastructure project accounts of banks were permitted to be classified as sub - standard if the date of commencement of commercial production extended beyond a period of two years ( as against 6 months in the case of other projects ) after the date of completion of the project, as originally envisaged. with effect from march 31, 2010, if an infrastructure project loan classified as “ standard asset ” is restructured any time during the above period of two years, it can be retained as a standard asset if the fresh date of commencement of operations is fixed within certain limits prescribed by the reserve bank, and provided the account continues to be serviced as per the restructured terms. bis central bankers ’ speeches certain relaxations as far as conditions specified for deriving asset classification benefits under our restructuring guidelines are made in respect of infrastructure exposure of banks i. e. in respect of repayment period of restructured advances and regarding tangible security. infrastructure debt funds realizing the potential of infrastructure debt funds in enhancing financing to the sector, reserve bank of india has, as a special case, permitted several prudential relaxations. sponsor bank of idf – nbfc has

the ailing companies have the resources to fully compensate for the lost purchasing power without passing on the cost to the same consumer. we want to live comfortably as before, forget the fact that others are unemployed because we are busy exporting jobs through an overvalued exchange rate, through negative interest rates that undermine the savings culture and encourage low productivity. forget the many hours spent out of the office in search of fuel that never came or that finished just before we got there. allow me to conclude on the following note. if we had a choice, we would have left the kwacha and interest rates alone. however, the extent of economic malaise was unprecedented in our short history and it will take a lot more work and sacrifice by the man on the street before things get better. this is not the time for growth. it is the time for correction. hopefully by this time next year, so i believe, this country will be different. the key to successful recovery will be the patience of the man on the street and the political will to implement the 2012 / 2013 budget as passed. with that the currency will stabilize ; interest rates will begin to come down ; foreign exchange reserves will be built up and investors will start looking at malawi again. inflation should be contained within an average of 18. 5 percent in 2012, coming down slightly to about 16 percent in 2013 but with a much lower rate at year - end. growth will pick up as projected at 5. 9 percent and payments arrears will be history. we will forget that fuel used to be scarce. with increased reserves, we will open up trade more so that malawians can enjoy the economic freedoms so enshrined in our constitution. that will be the time for the central bank to watch carefully growth prospects and prevent a runaway inflation – single digit inflation will come but in a sustainable way. i can foresee increasing investment in both export and import - substitution industries. that ’ s what a free float supported by appropriate other monetary and fiscal policies brings about. obviously, that brings about some instability but not forex shortages. by the way, with a free float you do not need 3 months import cover every time. but we must build up reserves even beyond three month because this is a country and we face many exogenous shocks which require reserves to be addressed expeditiously. well, we do not have the luxury of the counter - factual – what would have been the situation had the government – as two journalists