the benefit of the institutions and the market. i call on all of you to support such training initiatives by the school. 5. ladies and gentlemen : the program lays the essential groundwork for competing effectively in the islamic banking environment and explores the business opportunities and challenges of the field. we are delighted to be offering this new program in regional certificate in participatory / islamic banking which is fast becoming an attractive field in the global finance industry. globally, the islamic finance market is growing. islamic finance investments are now worth $ 1. 6 trillion and are forecast to increase to $ 2. 5 trillion by 2015. 6. in kenya we are committed to islamic banking framework for conducting financial transactions. we feel there is no better time to offer a course that will cover not just the conceptual apparatus, but the various opportunities and challenges that face islamic finance, whose growth shows no signs of abating. bis central bankers ’ speeches 7. ladies and gentlemen : the primary objective of the regional certificate in participatory / islamic banking program is to build the knowledge and human resource skills base that enhances competency of personnel serving in this sector. the benefits of attending this course include among others : • giving participants an all - round understanding of the documentary and structural issues involved in islamic banking. • the course will be resourced by top quality trainers of reputable professional standing. • the participants will be availed with highly researched reference text and training materials. 8. with these few remarks, ladies and gentlemen, it is now my honour and pleasure to launch the regional certificate in participatory / islamic banking program. i wish all of you success as you commence the learning process. thank you and god bless you all bis central bankers ’ speeches

the swedish economy ’ s total resources in the form of labour and machinery are currently being used to a normal extent. apart from new information on the current economic situation, there are also discussions of other new information that may be important for the forecasts in the slightly longer term. the first monetary policy group meeting with the executive board summarises new information after this it is time for the first large monetary policy group meeting. the entire executive board and most of the members of the monetary policy department take part in this meeting. in addition, a number of advisers to the executive board and employees of the financial stability department usually take part. a summary of the new information and the current status of the economy in sweden and abroad is presented at the meeting. we also run through the alternative scenarios ordered at the risk meeting a few weeks earlier and discuss whether they really capture the risks that we executive board members envisage. we also have the opportunity at this meeting to request more information on various issues considered important to the coming decision. the meeting usually takes around three hours. monetary policy department establishes its forecasts at approximately the same time as the meeting with the executive board, the monetary policy department establishes its view of macroeconomic developments over the coming three years. in a preliminary stage it focuses on around ten key variables such as inflation, interest rates, gdp, number of hours worked, exchange rates and resource utilisation. the forecasts are produced on the basis of the exogenous conditions, the international forecasts, the model forecasts for the swedish economy conditional on the current situation and assessments. the forecast for the interest rate path produced by the monetary policy department is meant to reflect the executive board ’ s normal, historical behaviour. it is not any form of recommendation from the department. all of this is discussed at a macro forecasting meeting in the monetary policy department. when the overall macroeconomic picture has been established, the economists chisel out the different points of the forecast in more detail. for instance, they make a complete forecast of the components in the balance of resources and in the labour market. finally they check the overall picture to ensure that the different parts of the forecast hold together and have been added up correctly. in total, the economists forecast around fifty variables. all of these are then compiled into an internal document that summarises the department ’ s view of how inflation and economic activity will develop in the future. another document is also created, explaining how the forecasts are affected by model