and its further reduction a strategic imperative. annualised growth in real gross domestic product accelerated from 3, 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2005 to 4, 8 per cent in the second quarter, with firm growth recorded in virtually all the main sectors of alan greenspan in his testimony to congress on 3 november 2005 said : “ the bottom line is that in periods of extreme chaos, it ’ s turned out that gold has been the ultimate means by which transactions have been consummated. it occurred, for example, during world war ii that you could only negotiate transactions with gold. ” the economy. all the final demand components – household consumption, government consumption, and fixed capital formation – have been expanding briskly. as could be expected, the upswing in economic activity and expenditure was accompanied by a strong increase in import volumes. accordingly, the current account of the balance of payments moved into deficit from 2003. the current - account deficit amounted to approximately 3½ per cent of gross domestic product in the first half of 2005. information on visible foreign trade suggests a larger trade deficit in the third quarter of 2005 than in the first two quarters of the year, but comprehensive data on services and income flows for the third quarter still need to be finalised before the current - account balance for the third quarter of the year can be determined. relatively favourable prices for most of south africa ’ s export commodities have been helping to contain the trade and current - account deficits. at the same time sizeable inflows of financial capital have been recorded over the past three years, exceeding the current - account deficits and enabling the bank to increase its foreign exchange reserves. on a trade - weighted basis, the rand appreciated by 11, 7 per cent in 2004. during the first 10 months of this year it has depreciated by 9 per cent. the rand ’ s overall recovery since the lows of late 2001 can be mainly attributed to improved perceptions about south africa ’ s economic fundamentals, us dollar weakness, rising commodity prices, positive interest rate differentials, and, of course, a recovery from heavily oversold levels. the emerging view of the rand is that it will respond to changing fundamentals in an orderly manner. rising income levels, improved confidence and lower interest rates have bolstered credit extension, resulting in banks ’ loans and advances to the domestic private sector increasing by 21, 5 per cent over the twelve months to september 2005. mortgage lending has been exceptionally strong, supported by

. contrary to the boe, the acpr and the ecb have chosen to rely on such assumption, as it allows to take into account the concept of double materiality and to assess how financial institutions would implement their commitments or steer their alignment strategies. the second lesson we learned is that the implementation of scenario analysis can expose data gaps on firms ’ exposures. such data gaps are particularly acute in the case of scenarios, which go beyond the horizons typically considered by firms and their supervisors. this make disclosures of climate - related data and forward looking metrics all the more important to support effective scenario analysis. progress in this area has already been made, following the cop21, with the creation of the task force on climate - related financial disclosures ( tcfd ). in 2017, the tcfd published its recommendations in terms of reporting. these guidelines take into account the double materiality of climate matters : both the information on the exposure of the company to climate change, and the information on the impact of the company on climate must be considered significant. nonetheless, more progress is necessary concerning climate disclosure. a first step is the shift from ‘ voluntary ’ to ‘ mandatory ’ reporting. on june 7, g7 nations came to an agreement to make climate - reporting mandatory in line with tcfd recommendations. mandatory requirements have been enforced in the eu since 2014, and will be extended to a larger set of corporates when the corporate sustainability reporting directive ( csrd ) will enter into force ( expected to apply as of october 2022 ). it will also be completed by the development of a comprehensive set of eu sustainability reporting standards. the first set of standards would be adopted by october 2022. we expect that the international standards to be developed by the international sustainability standards board ( issb ) will ensure interoperability with regional standards and offer common building blocks across jurisdictions and sectors. * * * * * let me conclude in highlighting that we are just at the starting point of what we can do with and what we draw from those scenario analyses. further collective work is needed to improve them. i have no doubt that we will succeed in doing so. financial institutions need to step up their effort to combat climate changes. scenario analysis can be an important and useful tool in the hands of financial institutions and their supervisors to guide such necessary 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches effort. thanks a lot for your attention. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches