sure that serbia pays one of the lowest gas prices during this energy crisis. second, the prices of basic foodstuffs have been temporarily capped and the government intervened several times by tapping its commodity reserves in order to supply the market with cheaper products. third, the government of the republic of serbia relinquished the regular january increase in excise tax on petroleum products, preventing a further rise in fuel prices on this account. fourth, petroleum product and gas prices have been temporarily capped as well. on top of all this, significant one - off payments were made to pensioners and youth. in this context, i would like to emphasize several indicators of improvement in the labour market in the last five years : since 2016 the minimum labour price has increased at the annual rate of around 9 % – its nominal increase during that period equals 67 %, and real more than 50 %. the coverage of the average consumer basket by the average wage went up from 66. 5 % to 84. 8 %, and of the minimum consumer basket from 60. 0 % to 80. 7 %. formal employment in the private sector increased by 284 thousand or by 20. 5 %. all of this is an indicator of the rise in the living standard. improving the living standard lies at the core of all policies implemented over the past ten years and remains a priority in the years ahead. in the meantime, additional disturbances have occurred in the global market in the past ten days. due to the current situation in the world, including trends in the energy and food markets, we have prepared a comprehensive programme to protect the population and the economy from the effects that may occur on the supply side, as well as from the price effects. president vucic presented the details of the programme that is already being implemented, as well as the fact that energy and commodity reserves have been provided as planned, which is part of our response to current global events and shocks in the world market. i will repeat, because i think it is important, that reserves of everything have been created in serbia on time – energy and commodity reserves, foreign exchange reserves, as well as foreign cash. ( slide 8 ) the fourth topic i will speak about today concerns the exchange rate of the dinar and the competitiveness of our economy. i will reiterate the facts i have often stated in the public. first, it is the favourable business conditions and not price factors that elevate the competitiveness of the domestic economy in the long run. second, even if the

##bank that was presented at the beginning of this year. 14 in their opinion, the riksbank ’ s mandate should include financial stability and this should be clarified in the sveriges riksbank act. i agree and welcome a discussion on how the responsibility should be formulated. an important question is what formal role the riksbank should have as regards preventive work aimed at reducing risks and vulnerabilities in the financial system, including within the policy area of macroprudential policy, which focuses on preventing and mitigating systemic risks. identifying systemic risks is nothing new in the world of central banking. what is new is the emergence of macroprudential policy as a policy area. this means that, in addition to the task of identifying systemic risks, clear mandates must also be defined for those who are to be responsible for macroprudential policy. in addition, a tool - box of different measures that can be taken to reduce systemic risks must also be developed. neither are many of the tools and measures currently being discussed entirely new, but were already in central bank arsenals prior to the major wave of deregulations during the 1980s. flaws in the swedish macroprudential policy framework in sweden, finansinspektionen has been given the main responsibility for macroprudential policy. in addition, there is a financial stability council – consisting of representatives of the government, finansinspektionen, the national debt office and the riksbank – which is a see goodfriend and king ( 2016 ). bis central bankers ’ speeches forum for the discussion of financial stability issues. i believe that there are significant flaws in several aspects of the swedish framework for macroprudential policy. firstly, experiences so far of the swedish framework indicate clear inadequacies in decisionmaking power. an obvious example is the protracted discussions on the introduction of a binding amortisation requirement. an important cause of the problem is that the macroprudential policy objective is unclear and too narrow. for example, it should be made clear that macroprudential policy instruments may be used not just to manage risks to financial stability, but also to reduce risks created by the financial sector in the real economy. it must also be clear that macroprudential policy includes the entire financial system and not just the credit market. a clarified and broadened objective is also appropriate in order to bring sweden ’ s framework in line with european standards. 15