13 percent of gold, then, at the very least, the value of vas is us $ 1. 0 trillion. exactly which va will be worth us $ 1. 0 trillion, we actually do not know. the other question is one of consumer protection - the extent to which the government and the central bank must educate the public and say, " we are allowing this to happen, but these are very risky assets. you should not put in money that you really need for many important things. " ongoing dialogue between regulators and market players in this ese, we would like to be updated on the adoption and usage of vas in the philippines. what exactly is happening on the ground? what are they being used for? to what extent should regulation apply? 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches right now, our view is [ that ] the moment vas meet fiat currency or deposits, clearly, you have to be regulated. exactly what the form of regulation will be is, of course, evolving. our view is one of caution. when did we freeze the issuance of vasps? about six months ago. our view is a cautious one, but regulation should be open to potentially good uses. therefore, if you ban it, then you are not in a position to move in that direction. we hope that we can gain some insights from our speakers. i hope that we can have a fruitful, balanced, and productive discussion ahead. as i already said, the central bank is open to it but very, very cautious. the more we learn, the more we can handle it better. thank you very much, and i hope that it will be a very good afternoon and [ an ] interesting discussion. 3 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches

w a wijewardena : why worry about inflation? speech by mr w a wijewardena, deputy governor of the central bank of sri lanka, at the central bank of sri lanka, colombo, 25 may 2007. * * * inflation, a continuous and steady rise in the general price level, is, by any standard, the public enemy number one. by the same token, hyper - inflation, an increase in the general price level to a very high level within a very short period of time, is a killer, akin to a mass destruction weapon. mr. gideon gono, governor of the reserve bank of zimbabwe, a country with an inflation rate of more than 3700 %, equated his country ’ s inflation to an economic hiv, a situation where people would die en masse. this reference eloquently amplifies the gravity of the cost of inflation which a country has to bear. why public enemy number one? from the point of view of economics, there are usually two declared public enemies : inflation and unemployment. of the two, inflation ranks higher. this is because inflation hurts everyone alike : bankers, businessmen, workers, consumers and so forth. you cannot escape it unless you are smart enough to beat it by raising your income faster than inflation. in contrast, unemployment which is also a serious problem, disadvantages only the unemployed. that category is only a segment of the society. hence, inflation is a bigger public enemy than the unemployment. when one compares it with other public enemies like drug abuse or terrorism, one would still find that those issues would also affect only a segment of the society at any given time. since inflation affects everyone and people have limited prospects of escaping it, it is considered as the public enemy number one. some amusing stories about inflation in the recent history, there have been many countries which have been hit by hyper inflation. of them, the most prominent case has been the hyper - inflation in germany after the first world war, where inflation accelerated to 1, 000, 000 % per annum. other noteworthy examples are bolivia ( 25000 % p. a. ) ; russia ( 2000 % ) ; israel ( 1500 % ) ; turkey ( again 1500 % ) and currently zimbabwe ( 3700 % and still rising ). when prices rise at these high rates, the first casualty would be the currency of the country. no one would like to accept the domestic currency, because its value would fall by the minute. instead, people