unlimited access to intraday credit would have created risks for the conduct of monetary policy that it was not ready to take. a facility will therefore be put in place to enable the non - euro area eu central banks to provide collateralised intraday credit in euro to their credit institutions, subject to a ceiling both at the level of the non - euro area eu central banks and at that of non - euro area credit institutions. there will also be a liquidity deadline, set at 5 p. m., for non - euro area credit institutions so that they do not incur an overnight overdraft in euro. further details are provided in the separate press release that is being issued to you this morning. the governing council also agreed that a report on recent developments in the field of electronic money - and their monetary policy implications - would be published in september 1998. ( d ) legal protection of euro banknotes finally, the governing council agreed on a number of legal instruments aimed at enhancing the protection of euro banknotes. in particular, an ecb decision on the denominations, specifications, reproduction, exchange and withdrawal of banknotes has been adopted, as well as an ecb recommendation regarding the adoption of certain measures to enhance the legal protection of euro banknotes and coins. both documents will be published for general information in the official journal of the european communities.

reported a further fall in credit demand among non - financial corporations in 2009 q2. credit demand in the enterprise sector is expected to stabilise in q3. household credit demand was approximately unchanged in q2, while banks expect increased household credit demand ahead. financial market turbulence since summer 2007 resulted in a sharp increase in interest rates, reaching a peak in 2009 q1. premiums have decreased substantially since then, but are perhaps not yet fully normalised. bank lending rates on loans to enterprises averaged 8 per cent at their highest in 2008 and have now moved down to 4¾ per cent, although margins have also increased here. norges bank ’ s executive board decided in june that the key policy rate should be in the interval ¾ - 1¾ per cent in the period to the publication of the next monetary policy report on 28 october 2009, unless the norwegian economy is exposed to new major shocks. in the assessment forming the basis for its monetary policy decision of 23 september, the executive board placed emphasis on underlying inflation, which is now below the inflation target. the krone has appreciated and will, in conjunction with continued low imported inflation, contribute to keeping inflation below target in the year ahead. this suggests that the key policy rate should be kept low for a period ahead. growth in the norwegian economy has picked up at a more rapid pace than was expected a few months ago. high activity in the oil industry and monetary and fiscal policy measures have contributed to supporting demand for goods and services. employment is stable and it appears that unemployment will be considerably lower than expected, despite the decline in manufacturing and the building and construction industry. low interest rates are contributing to renewed growth in household consumption. higher capacity utilisation and low productivity growth may increase upward pressure on costs, pointing towards somewhat higher inflation and suggesting that the key policy rate should be raised earlier than projected in the june monetary policy report. on balance, it was appropriate to keep the key policy rate unchanged at this meeting, although the executive board considered the alternative of increasing the key policy rate. thank you for your attention.