yandraduth googoolye : small and medium - sized enterprises in mauritius address by mr yandraduth googoolye, first deputy governor of the bank of mauritius, on the occasion of the signing of an agreement for a line of credit to the mauritius leasing company limited by the european investment bank for sme financing, caudan, 19 december 2011. * * * ladies and gentlemen it is a great honour for me to be among you for this memorable event and i welcome this opportunity to address this forum on a subject that has been much talked about lately, both at the national and international level. smes have played a key role in providing the necessary impetus to the advancement of some of the world ’ s economies like the united states, china, japan, taiwan, korea, hong kong as well as many countries in europe. ninety - nine per cent of all european businesses are in fact smes. they provide 2 out of 3 of the private sector jobs and contribute to more than half of the total value added created by businesses in the european union. in some countries, such as the uk, governments have entered into an agreement with major banks to determine how much they will lend to smes. in south africa, smes are said to contribute 40 % of gdp and 40 % of employment opportunities. there are currently over 100 million smes in africa and this figure is deemed to grow even more. india and countries in south america have been concentrating their efforts in developing the sme sector. in developing countries, smes serve as a useful bridge between the informal economy of family enterprises and the formalised corporate sector. as such, most policymakers deem the health of the sme sector to be highly important for an economy mauritius is not an exception to this. i believe that smes are critical for our future economic prosperity given that it has been placed on the national agenda by the government. indeed, the government of mauritius has endeavoured to bolster the sme sector by providing various incentives, including industrial space and special grants amongst other measures. some of the former smes are now big players in the mauritian corporate landscape. a survey conducted by statistics mauritius in 2007 revealed that there were around 92, 000 smes which provided employment to some 209, 000 individuals. these numbers are estimated to have reached 94, 000 and 250, 000, respectively, in 2010. sme jobs represent around 46 % of total employment in the economy and are mainly concentrated in

yves mersch : the causes of monetary policy measures and their impact - a review speech by mr yves mersch, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the euro finance week, faros institutional investors forum, frankfurt am main, 17 november 2016. * * * “ the knowledge of causes produces a knowledge of effects. ” ( marcus tullius cicero : “ cognitionem causarum enim cognitio eventorum facit. ” topica 67 ) the financial sector is facing an upheaval. many of the changes are intentional and positive. but certainly not all of them. and to understand the individual factors and their interactions better, i ’ ll be taking a closer look today at the causes of our monetary policy measures and their effects. for the european central bank ’ s policy is often referred to as a cause of the current problems in the banking and financial sector. it will quickly become clear that this assumption has its shortcomings. by focusing on the causes of our actions we can understand more easily how to get back to a normalisation of monetary policy. causes : low natural interest rates let us start with the causes. why are interest rates so low? the growth trend has been declining in many mature economies not just since the crisis, but for several decades. there are many reasons for this, which i won ’ t consider here in detail. the fact is, the slowdown in growth has led to lower long - term interest rates. in these circumstances, there is a risk of a self - reinforcing downward spiral as these developments do not go unnoticed by economic actors ; their expectations are worsening. if a company expects demand to fall, it will be less inclined to make big investments. moreover, ageing societies, which exist in many mature economies, not only have to cope with a shrinking labour force, but they also have to save more. this has led to a savings glut and to a shortage of safe assets. so investments are falling and savings are rising. this reluctance to invest is further reinforced when public authorities – with room to manoeuvre as well as existing demand – invest less than is needed even to preserve the capital stock. this dynamic has led to a reduction in the natural interest rate, i. e. the real rate of interest in which savings and investments are in equilibrium in an economy operating at its potential, where there is neither upward nor downward pressure on inflation. the natural rate of interest plays an