is estonia's utmost short - term objective. the adoption of the euro will ensure the stability of the money used in estonia and is extremely important for further reinforcement of the banking system and the investment climate. it can be said the clear perspective of joining the euro area is an absolutely necessary precondition at the national economy level for the permanent recovery of growth. declining inflation has created all the possibilities in estonia to meet the maastricht criteria by end - 2009, which makes it possible to join the euro area on 1 january 2011 at the latest. in this context and from the point of view of monetary and financial system stability, fiscal policy has two tasks in 2009. first of all it must be made sure that the current account deficit, which cannot be avoided in the prevailing economic environment, remains below 3 % of gdp both this year and in 2010. in order to achieve this, eesti pank is of the opinion that in addition to the steps taken in february, this year's fiscal deficit needs to be reduced by a further 6. 5 billion kroons. in addition to fiscal consolidation, it is important to ensure long - term fiscal sustainability. once the acute crisis is over, the first thing to do is to achieve fiscal balance. then it is necessary to restore the public sector's extensive fiscal reserves. the national budget strategy recently approved by the government creates a necessary macro framework according to which the budget should reach balance by 2011. eesti pank is of the opinion the new strategy is a timely and ambitious document which requires cooperation also at riigikogu level. taking into account that government expenditure as a ratio to gdp has soared, budget adjustment must be done primarily on the expenditure side. tax revenue increases may support the adjustment, but they should not play the main role. if only tax advances were used to finance costs at the current level, estonia's long - term economic growth would be imperilled. also, we support the principles of the current tax policy, according to which the share of indirect and pollution taxes would increase on account of direct taxes. i would like to emphasise once again that the measures taken over the past half a year in both the public and the private sector have improved estonia's ability to exit the crisis. this is confirmed by the fact that most of the rating agencies as well as the imf's recent mission to estonia have expressed positive assessments of estonia's economic outlooks. to support economic growth, it is

behind such new payment instruments. those relate, in particular, to the segment of person - to - person payments, or p2p transactions. i find it remarkable that cash dominates to such an extent when it comes to payments between individuals, such as in - home services and giving money to relatives, friends, churches or other charity organisations. our latest payments study suggests that 93 % of the value of all p2p transactions in euro was attributable to cash payments. 2 this may also reflect the still fragmented payments landscape in europe. to date, cash remains the one truly universal means of payment when it comes to p2p transactions in the euro area. but again, we have to see matters in perspective : the total amount of p2p cash transactions in euro is fairly small, amounting to about 4 % of all cash payments in the euro area. 3 4 cash as a unit of account 3 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches ladies and gentlemen, cash increases the diversity of payment instruments by offering several unique features : it is tactile and does not require any technical equipment. it is this haptic nature of cash which, in my view, is an important element of ensuring financial inclusion. cash as a means of payment is easily understood across the generational divide. to me, this is closely associated with the third core function of cash, which is serving as a unit of account. universally accepted currencies are not a new phenomenon : be it gold during the gold standard, the pound sterling during the industrial revolution or the us dollar to this day, all have served as major internationally accepted units of account. households value currencies they can count on and, more importantly, count with. there is arguably an important element of economic education underlying physical legal tender. we all have grown up playing board games, exchanging and counting paper money with our hands. cash bridges generations. when we at the deutsche bundesbank open our doors to the general public as part of our efforts to inform people about the tasks we perform within the eurosystem, the display of actual cash and gold at our stalls attracts visitors both young and old. these physical items serve as the first point of entry into the often abstract world of monetary policy. but, how is the increasingly widespread use of e - wallets and mobile payment apps impacting on households ’ financial literacy? are children still able to grasp the educational aspect of cash in an increasingly digitalised payments landscape? after all, there may