general been preceded by a considerable stream of demand for dollars, which is quite the contrary to what is happening now. the current situation is not at all similar to what occurred in the past two decades. during the 1980s, argentina was hardly competitive and the growing fiscal deficit was financed by printing money, which ended in hyperinflation. in the 1990s, low inflation lived with growing twin deficits ( fiscal and current account ) that were entirely inconsistent with the exchange rate regime at the time. argentina currently exhibits the largest primary fiscal surplus of the past 50 years, a financial sector that is paying back its debt to the central bank, and a significant current account surplus supported by the sustained growth of exports. there are reasons to believe that “ temporary ” factors are putting pressure prices today. due to the limited pass - through to domestic prices that followed the devaluation of the peso, there should be a natural adjustment in relative prices in a context of sound economic growth and a narrowed output gap, as well as some imported “ inflation ” in the framework of a more open economy and an international market with rising prices ( crude oil and commodities in general ). in my view, a strict hold on the growth of monetary aggregates in a way that encourages savings without affecting investment nor leading to short - term and volatile capital inflows combined with a responsible fiscal policy with countercyclical components and a prudent wage policy is the right way to go in order to keep inflation on track in argentina. we should not ignore the fact that we are talking about an economy that is still in transition, where key economic variables have not reached their long term equilibrium levels yet, credit markets are small and the trnsmission mechanisms of monetary policy are highly undetermined. it is important to keep in mind that it took long to countries that suffered huge economic crises to fully stabilize their economies and achieve sustainable growth. in fact, the approach of countries such as chile, to fully stabilize their economies included fiscal discipline, external debt normalization, reconstruction of the financial system and avoidance of an acceleration in inflation in a sequential manner. all of these countries put in place gradual policies after the collapse of their economies. 4. challenges latin american countries today are better prepared to face eventual changes in the international environment than in the past due to sound macroeconomic policies. the key challenge though is to make theses policies long - lasting. in fact, the current favorable international context and the expansion cycle of the global economy provides an

mauritius has issued the new guidance notes to the industry on a consultative basis. the customer due diligence document also attributes the responsibility to national supervisors for ensuring that banks have minimum standards and internal controls that allow them to know their customers. given the increasing responsibilities of bank supervisors, i have proceeded with a significant capacity building in the supervision department of the bank. the staff has been almost doubled and is being intensively trained to meet the challenges in the years ahead. last year, we underwent an fsap assessment at our own request. the bank of mauritius act and banking act are being revised to further enhance compliance with the “ core principles ” and to take into consideration the recommendations made by the fsap team following its detailed assessment of compliance with the 25 core principles for effective supervision and transparency of banking supervision. the bank issued on november 2002 a guideline on public disclosure of information by financial institutions. rigid bank secrecy laws are no longer acceptable in the global fight against money laundering. information has to be shared with competent authorities. in this connexion, the financial intelligence and anti - money laundering act 2002 established the financial intelligence unit. the fiu has explicit power to gather, analyse and disseminate information. in the last few years we have made a great leap forward in improving the regulatory and supervisory infrastructure in mauritius. we have since quite sometime adopted a prophylactic approach in our regulatory and supervisory policies in respect of our banking industry. the job of regulators and supervisors has never been an easy one. it is often misunderstood. it ’ s a highly complex one full of invisible hurdles. the hurdles stemming from inside the country are relatively easy to overcome. those stemming from abroad are not that easily overcome. regulators and supervisors across the world have however been doing an excellent job. they are never congratulated for their good performance. and never expect to be congratulated. so let us congratulate ourselves. let me wish the annual meeting of the ogbs the very best of success. may i also wish you a pleasant stay in mauritius. thank you.