standards. all of this together contributes to the preservation of financial stability. with this i would conclude my opening remarks and give the floor to my colleagues who will present the key messages of the november inflation report and our perception of macroeconomic trends in the coming period. you will hear from them that our projections of inflation movements indicate that we will accomplish our main statutory objective by ensuring low inflation within the target tolerance band in the future period as well. chart 6 inflation projection ( y - o - y rates, in % ) - 1 - 2 source : nbs.

mortgage banks should generally stay well within the statutory limits – also after this bill has been passed. * * * during the last 18 months, the danish productivity commission has analysed the reasons for many years ’ low productivity growth in denmark. some sectors are more severely affected than others. the commission has also presented a long list of proposals for improving productivity in various parts of the economy. the financial sector plays an important role in danish society as a provider of capital to households and firms, and it also offers products such as pension saving schemes and hedging of various types of risk. in addition, the sector ensures that domestic and cross - border payments can be transacted efficiently. so from society ’ s point of view it is important that this sector is as efficient as possible – which means that its production costs should be as low as possible. a rough indicator of developments in labour productivity in the financial sector can be obtained by looking at domestic lending – or alternatively financial assets – relative to employment in the sector. calculated in this way, labour productivity was more or less constant in the decades before the liberalisation of the financial markets, which really took off in the early 1980s. liberalisation of capital flows across borders and deregulation of the financial sector in denmark have provided considerable welfare gains. these gains are the result of lower prices and a larger product range, coupled with better opportunities for planning individual savings, consumption and investment. at the same time, financial sector productivity has increased substantially. in fact, since 1980 productivity has grown by an average of 4 – 5 per cent annually in the financial sector. but in recent years lending by banks and mortgage banks relative to employment has been stagnant or shown a weak trend compared with previously. domestic lending by banks relative to employment has even fallen. compared with the rest of the eu, denmark is among the member states with the largest balance - sheet sum or domestic lending per employee. but in terms of cost - to - earnings ratio, denmark is in the middle of the table. this could indicate that, at least on average, there is scope for further efficiency improvements in danish credit institutions in the coming years. however, there are large differences within the sector. comparisons of individual danish and foreign banking groups show that some danish banks are fully able to match the most bis central bankers ’ speeches efficient foreign banks. but at the same time a number of danish banks are less efficient than the top danish and foreign banks. for these banks, the scope for improvement