, and it expands the financial sector and promotes the use of cost - effective financing instruments. however, while the corporate bond market has been gaining new momentum elsewhere, the development is being viewed with apprehension here. we embarked on this policy to develop a corporate bond market in 2009 when we acquired the so - called aqualectra bonds. in 2012, we participated in the bond issue of the sint maarten harbour company. the case of sint maarten is a special one. contrary to the aqualectra bond, the sint maarten harbour bonds have a much wider and broader participation as more market participants acquired the bonds. this increased participation is also thanks to the standby arrangement according to which the central bank stands ready to buy or sell bonds at all times as dictated by the monetary conditions of the union. however, a necessary condition for this arrangement to be successful is that our public enterprises have unconventional monetary policy measures : principles - conditions - raison d ’ etre. speech delivered at the ijcb conference “ central banking : before, during, and after the crisis ” held on march 23 – 24, 2012, at the board of governors of the federal reserve system in washington, dc. bis central bankers ’ speeches to be well managed and sound. in this regard, i concur with dr. age bakker2, chairman of the board of financial supervision – cft – who last november during the kingdom conference stated that, “ the sint maarten economy has been performing well during the past decade. the budgetary challenges in sint maarten are less pronounced than in curacao, the netherlands, and aruba. the main reasons are that sint maarten has a younger population, well capitalized social funds, and sound public enterprises. ” that the sint maarten harbour company is well managed, was another important consideration for the bank to facilitate the bond issue of the sint maarten harbour company. ladies and gentlemen, with a much broader set of policy instruments, we hope that the bank can continue to promote the stability of the guilder, thereby creating an environment conducive to more growth and prosperity. as recent policy measures of the bank demonstrated, we were able to reduce the current account deficit and turn the balance of payments deficit into a surplus. however, for these results to be sustainable, we have to strengthen our export - generating capacity by making sint maarten a welcome place

i should like to emphasize that the credit measure sets a limit only on the growth of credit. hence, in the case of sint maarten, where credit extension has actually been declining since 2011, the credit measure has no effect. the decline in private credit extension in sint maarten clearly indicates certain weaknesses in the economy ’ s macroeconomic environment. these weaknesses may be the result of either a decline in the demand for credit or a reduction in the supply of credit by commercial banks. ladies and gentlemen, so far, the bank ’ s monetary policy has produced the intended results by moderating credit growth, improving the current account deficit on the balance of bis central bankers ’ speeches payments, and stemming the decline in reserves in the monetary union. in 2013, the deficit on the current account of the balance of payments dropped further, primarily because the growth in exports of goods and services exceeded the rise in imports. export growth was driven largely by the tourism and transportation sectors, mitigated by a decline in the reexport activities by the free - zone companies in curacao. imports rose as a result of more merchandise imports to meet tourism demand and the import of construction materials related to investment projects, including the simpson bay causeway. however, a decline in merchandise imports by the free - zone companies in curacao combined with a decline in domestic demand in curacao moderated import growth. also, the lower international oil and food prices contained the increase in the import bill. the deficit on the current account was financed primarily by external financing to the private sector, as reflected by a worsening of the direct investment, portfolio investment, and loans and credit balances. as the inflow of capital during 2013 exceeded the current account deficit, the balance of payments of the monetary union recorded a surplus as reflected by an increase of approximately naf. 77 million in the gross official reserves. we should not consider the improved situation on the balance of payments in 2013 as a reason to lessen our efforts to address the imbalances on the current account. after all, the current account deficit as a percentage of gdp is still too high. in this context, we must realize that the deployment of monetary tools can bring only a short - term solution to a structural problem. the situation on the balance of payments can be structurally improved only if both curacao and sint maarten take the necessary actions. an analysis of the developments on the current account of the balance of payments over the