recognise that environmental damages and climate - related risks pose immediate threats to fiji ’ s economic and financial stability, and as a result, our concerted efforts place a keen focus on building a greener, sustainable nation and transitioning fiji to a net zero emission economy by 2050. the reserve bank, with the support of the financial industry, is committed towards greening fiji ’ s financial sector and has introduced a number of supporting initiatives in this regard. noteworthy highlights include working with government to issue the country ’ s first sovereign green bond – making fiji the first emerging market economy to do so globally ; in addition to making international green finance commitments under the afi maya declaration and joining the sustainable banking network. on the domestic front, the reserve bank provides concessional funding for sustainable and renewable energy projects and has in place a renewable energy loans ratio for commercial bank. to build socio - economic resilience, fiji has articulated strategic priorities and actions through a number of our national development plans and policies. more recently, work on a establishing a climate change bill will allow us to introduce a progressive legal framework that is designed to fundamentally shape and enable climate resilient development pathways for the benefit of fiji ’ s people, without jeopardizing our progress as a nation or our environment. at the reserve bank, our inclusive green finance emphasis centres on implementing initiatives that not only align to national priorities and international standards, but also constantly evolve to meet the changing needs of fiji ’ s financial industry, in line with global market developments. work has commenced on drafting a national sustainable finance framework and discussions with government are underway to issue fiji ’ s first blue bonds to fund the conservation of our ocean and marine resources. the lessons, challenges and opportunities from fiji ’ s journey on inclusive green finance therefore form the basis of this joint learning programme and we look forward to sharing these highlights with you over the next few days. conclusion dear colleagues, i must conclude by thanking afi for the opportunity to co - host this event. we greatly appreciate your presence and commitment to this three - day programme. we have very relevant topics to consider, which i hope will generate interesting and productive discussions as well as identify the way forward for your respective institutions. i wish you all a very successful training and an enjoyable virtual learning experience. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

of the year. for over a year, this monetary policy divergence has been a major factor behind the depreciation of the euro against the us dollar. as chart 2 shows, since mid - 2014, the european currency has declined some 18 % in value and has also weakened on a trade - weighted basis, by around 9 %. the trade - weighted us dollar, by contrast, has gained approximately 15 % in this period. another important issue on financial markets has been the increased uncertainty due to the unresolved debt problem in greece. despite the fact that risk attitudes, as such, are positive, demand for safe investments and thus for the swiss franc has remained particularly strong. consequently, recent movements in the swiss franc have been influenced not only by the divergence between the dollar and euro regions, but also by persistent safe haven flows. the discontinuation of the minimum exchange rate led to a very substantial but short - lived appreciation in the swiss franc. the extent of this appreciation is shown in chart 3. the extreme movements in the exchange rate were accompanied by a sharp increase in volatility on the swiss franc foreign exchange market. since then, swiss franc volatility has declined, although it remains high in a long - term comparison with the period prior to the financial crisis. bis central bankers ’ speeches at the same time, bid - ask spreads, i. e. differences between the best purchasing and selling offers, widened substantially following the end of the minimum exchange rate. these, too, have declined in the past few months, although the bid - ask spreads remain relatively large. in trade - weighted terms, the swiss franc is no longer at the extreme levels that prevailed immediately after the discontinuation of the minimum exchange rate. however, it is still some 12 % above the level at the beginning of the year. thus, the swiss franc is still substantially overvalued. implementation and impact of negative interest exactly six months ago, on 18 december 2014, the swiss national bank ( snb ) decided to impose negative interest on sight deposit account balances at the snb for the first time, setting the rate at – 0. 25 %. when it discontinued the minimum exchange rate, it lowered the rate once again by 0. 5 percentage points, to – 0. 75 %. by imposing negative interest on sight deposits, the snb intends to move the three - month libor into negative territory and significantly reduce interest rates