countries, 25 delegates from central banks, 64 delegates from the private sector, 4 delegates from multinational organizations and others from governmental and academic institutions. we can therefore reasonably expect very enriching debates and exchanges at the various sessions. the inaugural meeting in south africa last year already set the tone. participants highlighted the signs of africa ’ s stunning potential : 5 % average gdp growth in the recent past, fast - rising incomes, and abundant resources. the meeting articulated the crucial requirements for the future of the african continent. foremost among them were the following : first, strengthening trade integration with other faster growing areas ; second, fighting corruption ; and third, harnessing domestic and foreign savings for investment and development. the theme of this year ’ s symposium “ trade flows and global growth ” rightly follows up on the conclusions of the meeting in south africa. tonight i will share with you our own experience at the bank of mauritius and touch upon our role in the regional integration agenda. i also comment en passant on some issues that have a bearing on the prosperity of the african continent. we are all aware that we are meeting against the backdrop of a continuing global financial and economic crisis. at different levels and in different fora, we have talked enough about it. as christine lagarde, the managing director of the imf, put it in tokyo, it is now time to a - c - t, spelling the word for added emphasis. lagarde didn ’ t say it but she would surely agree that africa must be part of the solution to the global crisis. bis central bankers ’ speeches while mature markets, in particular the uk and the euro area, continue to face sharp risks of prolonged sub - par growth, asia and africa, have emerged as the two fastest - growing continents in the world. asia, resilient in the face of prolonged softening in external demand, is being hailed as the new axis of development. what a refreshing change from the bugbear of the yellow peril and the clash of civilizations that western strategists used to fantasize about not so long ago! typical of this school of thought was a book penned by alain pereyfitte, confidant of charles de gaulle, which he entitled : “ quand la chine s ’ eveillera … le monde tremblera ” − literally translated, “ when china awakes … … there ’ ll be a global earthquake. ” as lord desai has pointed out, the african awakening is

. the fed, for example, cut the penalty rate on its discount window from 100 points to 50 points in order to lessen the cost of emergency funding to banks. some central banks also widened the range of securities in which they were prepared to deal. none of these measures was intended as a change in monetary policy settings and no central bank has reduced its interest rate target. neither should these measures be seen as an attempt to “ bail out ” banks or markets. rather, the measures have been technical operations aimed at breaking up the log jams in money markets and encouraging funds to flow again, in order to prevent monetary conditions becoming tighter than the settings that had been determined by the central bank monetary policy committees and boards in the various countries. the operations have restored some degree of calm to markets but conditions have not yet returned to normal. notably, yields on asset - backed commercial paper as yet have not fallen, indicating a continuing high degree of nervousness among investors. yields on us treasury bills have reversed some of their earlier fall, but still remain unusually low, again indicating a continuing strong risk aversion among investors. on the other hand, share markets in many countries have recovered strongly and some of the earlier exchange rate moves have also been largely reversed. the australian situation despite the fact that australian banks are in very sound condition and have been experiencing minimal credit losses, they were nonetheless affected by the spread of the global money market turmoil. on the morning of 10 august, banks started telling us that they were noticing a reduced flow of funds through the market. the cost of raising funds in global markets through swaps had risen noticeably, putting more pressure on domestic funding sources. yields on banks bills had jumped sharply overnight, and libor rates by even more ( graph 9 ). the reserve bank decided to supply more than the usual $ 700 - 800 million of exchange settlement funds, so that the overnight interest rate would not rise above the target set by the board in early august. those operations were successful in maintaining the cash rate at the 6. 5 per cent target, though other short - term market interest rates remained unusually elevated. since then, the bank has continued to supply whatever amounts of exchange settlement balances were necessary to keep the cash rate at the target. in the process, balances rose to a peak of $ 5. 5 billion in the middle of last week, the highest level for some years, though some of this has been reversed recently. the bank also skewed its market operations