. e. inflation excluding food, energy, alcohol and cigarette prices, which measured 9. 5 % y - o - y in october. it is, however, important to note that core inflation remains well below headline inflation, but also lower than core inflation in some countries of the region pursuing the same monetary policy regime. a powerful deterrent of stronger core inflation growth is the preserved relative stability of the dinar exchange rate even in the conditions of globally heightened uncertainty in the international financial market. chart 9 cpi movements in selected cesee countries ( y - o - y rates, in % ) hungary romania 20. 7 poland czech republic 20. 1 18. 0 serbia 17. 2 15. 9 14. 7 14. 0 11. 8 10. 7 8. 6 9 101112 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9 101112 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9 101112 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9 101112 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9 101112 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 headline inflation core inflation inflation target tolerance band source : central banks. under the november medium - term projection, headline inflation will remain elevated until late this and early next year, but it will strike a downward trajectory thereafter. inflation is expected to decline more sharply in the second half of 2023, and retreat within the bounds of the target tolerance band in the second half of 2024. inflationary pressures will be soothed by past monetary policy tightening, anticipated waning of the effects of global factors underpinning energy and food price growth in the past period, and subdued external demand amid unfavourable global growth prospects. though they remain volatile and much higher than a year ago, the global prices of oil and other primary commodities as well as industrial raw materials have been drifting down over the past months in the face of stronger recessionary pressures worldwide, while supply chain disruptions are easing as well. in september and october, the global prices of natural gas, coal and electricity also subsided, helped by favourable weather conditions and higher than anticipated storage levels in europe. chart 10 inflation projection chart 11 movement in the key policy rate and average repo rate ( y - o - y rates, in % ) ( daily data, p. a., in % ) 5. 5 5. 0 4. 5 4. 0 key policy rate lending facilities rate deposit facilities rate average repo rate 3. 5 3.

launched a number of initiatives to encourage further growth of our sustainable loans market. one of these is our green and sustainable finance grant scheme, which provides subsidies to support green debt issuance in hong kong. since the scheme was launched in 2021, we have provided grants to over 210 debt instruments, totaling around us $ 70 billion, many of which were loans aligned with aplma's principles. and we are constantly enhancing the scheme to encourage usage, such as by halving the minimum borrowing amount threshold to hk $ 100 million last year. 12. in addition, we are working to address some key challenges that the industry faces, particularly as regards data and talent, by working with the industry to build database and data analytical tools, and provide relevant training and work experience. we have also simplified the process for bringing sustainability - finance professionals to hong kong from overseas. 13. i would like to highlight the capacity building support scheme that the government launched last december to offer subsidies of up to hk $ 10, 000 to students and practitioners that take up sustainable finance for trainings and qualifications. i would encourage you and your staff to make the most of this offer. 14. over the past few years, in view of the challenges from covid, we have also taken steps to facilitate the flow of credit to borrowers. for example, we have enhanced banks'lending capacity in times of liquidity stress. since 2019, the hkma has taken a series of steps, including lowering the countercyclical capital buffer by 1. 5 percentage points and cutting the regulatory reserves by half, releasing about hk $ 1 trillion of banks'lending capacity. 15. furthermore, we have been pushing the use of fintech to help financial institutions to speed up loan approval. the commercial data interchange, or cdi, which the hkma launched in october last year, is designed to enable consent - 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches 15. based data sharing across banks. at the end of december 2022, cdi had already facilitated the approval of over 1, 000 sme loans from participating banks, amounting to over hk $ 1. 9 billion. and this is just the very beginning of an exciting journey. 16. on top of all these, the government has just announced in the 2023 - 24 budget speech a wide range of new measures to further promote the development of the credit market in hong kong. for example, the government will work with regulators to refine the regulatory measures and tax arrangements