wealth in the hands of total strangers. the promise of high returns is so tempting that individuals who are in other circumstances perfectly rational and ready even to advise others of good investment outlets get carried by enchanting talks and end up losing their money. the responsibility of microfinance practitioners the wide - spread existence of spurious microfinance institutions in the society projects the entire microfinance industry as a fraudulent activity in the eyes of the public and law enforcement authorities. this is not a healthy sign for the future of microfinance industry at all. microfinance practitioners should put a stop to this unhealthy development by establishing a proper governance structure in microfinance institutions. they teach the poor of the importance of and the need for leading a responsible life. this responsible life includes behavioural traits like being truthful, being honest, being respectful and being exemplary. the cultivation of these qualities in life makes the poor wholesome individuals and that is the ultimate goal of any microfinance intervention in the society. if the microfinance practitioners do not practise what they preach, then, it is a serious lapse of the governance structure of microfinance institutions. since governance principles are rules of good behaviour and there is no effective way of ensuring their proper practice, the practitioners should make an extra effort to follow them. it requires full commitment and devotion on the part of microfinance practitioners and, in turn, depends on the personal qualities which they have cultivated in themselves. such quality developments come from long - term training, discipline and fear of losing credibility and reputation. in other words, microfinance practitioners should have the long - term sustainability, and not quick profit, as their goal. it is, therefore, necessary to develop microfinance practitioners before they are allowed to develop microfinance beneficiaries. noble eight - fold path is a guide for everyone the buddha preached the noble eight - fold path to be followed by both the kings and the subjects alike. it is a complete personal development programme for those who aspire to become successful and be of help to others in the society. it is a moral code that requires people to speak rightly, act rightly, live rightly, make efforts rightly, know rightly, concentrate rightly, think rightly and understand rightly. the noble eight - fold path is not a moral code that should be enforced by means of a moral law. it is simply a voluntary action which everyone should follow for

and it is now managed by an executive board consisting of six persons who make all of the strategic decisions. the price stability target has also been stipulated in the law text since 1999. the riksbank ’ s monetary policy strategy has been developed and modified. we do not think, act or communicate in the same way today as we did when the inflation targeting regime was new. the driving force behind the changes has come partly from practical experiences, both in sweden and other countries conducting inflation targeting. academic research has also played an important role. before i go into greater detail on how the riksbank ’ s strategy has developed and how it looks today, let me begin by describing the background to the establishment of an inflation target in sweden. background to the introduction of an inflation target in sweden on sunday, 19 november, the swedish krona will have been floating for exactly fourteen years. the date 19 november 1992 will always have a special significance for the riksbank, as it was the day that we were forced to abandon the fixed exchange rate, under dramatic circumstances and following a dogged defence of the krona against speculation. this happened in the midst of the most serious economic crisis in sweden since the 1930s – a crisis that can generally be described as a tragic climax to almost twenty years of stabilisation policy problems. the economic policy conducted during the 1970s and 1980s tended for various reasons to be overly expansionary and it proved difficult to maintain price rises and wage increases at a reasonable level. the idea behind the fixed exchange rate policy was to ensure that inflation in sweden would be in line with our most important trading partners ’ inflation rates and that the fixed exchange rate would function as a nominal anchor. instead, price and wage developments repeatedly came on a collision course with the fixed exchange rate and sweden suffered cost crises. to rectify this situation, the krona was devalued a total of five times during a period of seven years. however, the trend increase in domestic prices and wages continued to rise, so the fundamental problem was still there in the background. the result was modest economic growth, poor productivity growth and more or less stagnant real wages. this performance was markedly weak both compared with earlier periods and in relation to other countries. during the crisis years at the beginning of the 1990s the situation deteriorated even further. unemployment increased fourfold in the course of a few years and the central government finances deteriorated dramatically. long - term interest rates rose and the interest rate differential vis - avis