status as an agent of economic growth. ladies and gentlemen. the bsp has been fostering a more liberal regulatory environment, built on strong prudential supervision foundation to promote a more inclusive and accessible financial system. among others, we have liberalized branching to boost the efficient delivery of financial services, including microfinance, to areas with minimal access to banking services. altogether, these regulatory measures should give rural banks scope to participate more fully in economic development. now, more than ever, we shall be relying on the collective support of industry players in working toward a stronger and more efficient rural banking system – one that is fully capable of mobilizing savings for a robust rural economy. to achieve this, let us work together to continue the reforms we have started to create greater confidence in the integrity and dependability of the country ’ s banking system. let us therefore resolve to strengthen our partnership for a more efficient, competitive and resilient banking system as a service to our people and our country. again, our congratulations to the officers and staff of onb! daghan salamat sa inyong tanan.

australian workers and resource - related firms putting additional capital in place in the resources sector. this has accounted for much of the capital flowing into australia over the past few years ( graph 3 ). 7 importantly, this source of demand for australian dollars will decline as resources investment turns down. absent further increases in commodity prices, the discovery of new mineral deposits, or a reduction in the costs of developing and extracting higher - cost deposits, we cannot expect investment to remain at recent levels. 8 ( iii ) finally, there is a quantity effect during the production phase of the boom. this follows from the additional export revenue generated by the new resource projects. some of this will accrue to australian owners of the new projects and infrastructure, some will go towards paying workers and suppliers supporting the new facilities, and some will go to paying taxes owed in australia. the rest will remain in the hands of foreign owners. the effect of the higher commodity prices on the nominal exchange rate at any point in time will depend on the expected sum of these different flows into the future. also, there may be offsetting reductions in inflows to other sectors of the economy, particularly those adversely affected by the appreciation of the exchange rate. clearly, determining this sum is no easy task and is subject to considerable uncertainties. for a discussion of the impact of the mining boom on cross - border financial flows, see debelle g ( 2013 ), “ funding the resources investment boom ”, address to the melbourne institute public economic forum, canberra, 16 april. whether the investment is undertaken by australian or foreign residents need not affect the demand for australian dollars. for example, australian residents could choose to borrow offshore to fund the investment in the resources sector ( assuming unchanged saving and investment behaviour elsewhere in the economy ). this would lead to inflows of capital during the investment phase, followed by outflows associated with the servicing of that debt during the production phase. it is worth noting that a decline in the australian dollar will help to reduce these costs. also, gross investment needs to be higher to offset the effects of depreciation on the now higher level of the capital stock. bis central bankers ’ speeches graph 3 one aspect of the uncertainty is the path of commodity prices themselves. indeed, the full extent of the rise in commodity prices only became clear over a number of years, starting from around the mid 2000s. this gradual updating of the outlook for commodity prices meant that the exchange rate didn ’ t jump higher