early 1999, the expectation of a strengthening in economic activity in the course of 1999 and a further acceleration next year all indicate that any upward pressures on prices will have to be monitored very carefully. let me now give the floor to the vice - president to introduce two additional topics we discussed during the governing council meeting : in addition to reviewing the main monetary, financial and other economic indicators, the governing council also considered the days on which the target system would be closed in the year 2000. with regard to the calendar of target operating days for 1999, the ecb announced on 31 march 1999 that the target system would close on 31 december 1999, in addition to saturdays and sundays, christmas day and new year ’ s day. however, considering the financial and social cost of keeping the target system open on days which are traditionally public holidays ( or bank holidays ) in most of the euro area, and in view of the indication given by the european banking industry that it would welcome the closing of target on such days, the governing council today decided in principle that next year – in addition to saturdays and sundays – target will be closed on new year ’ s day, good friday, easter monday, 1 may ( labour day ), christmas day and 26 december. in countries where one of these days is not a public holiday, the national central bank will endeavour to close the national rtgs system on the day in question or, when this is not possible, will seek to limit domestic payment activity as much as possible. you will find further information relating to this decision in the separate press release to be issued today. last and certainly not least, it is my great pleasure to announce a very important milestone along the road to the introduction of the euro banknotes. the production of the euro banknotes has begun and, by the end of this month, euro banknote production will be under way in printing works in several euro area countries. as you will remember, we presented the draft euro banknote designs in december 1996. the designs were subsequently adjusted and refined in order to meet the technical specifications in full. intensive work then began to convert the detailed designs into the origination material, in other words the final dies, films and plates which enable printing plates to be made. production of the pilot series started in september 1998 and was completed a few months ago. the printing of this pilot series involved the production of several million banknotes under normal operating conditions. this was a success and we therefore agreed that the participating national central banks could

earners notably tea, horticulture and tourism exports are to the eu region. the government has already intensified efforts in the eac region to renew the epas. the diversification in kenya ’ s export products and external markets is expected to moderate any adverse effects of external shocks on exports. a significant share of kenya ’ s exports, about 40 percent, is exported to africa, and these economies are not dominantly reliant on commodity exports. we are also closely monitoring the impact of the recent elections in the u. s. on trade given that the u. s. accounts for about 7 percent of kenya ’ s total exports ; largely through the african growth and opportunity act ( agoa ) framework. before i conclude, i would like to reiterate that the cbk is strengthening the banking sector to ensure greater transparency and stronger governance, and also to promote effective business models and innovation. as you may be aware, the financial sector continues to support the transformation of our economy, and to contribute to economic growth. the cbk is closely monitoring the impact of the recent legislation to cap bank interest rates on the economy, while implementing additional measures to lower the cost of credit on a sustainable basis. these measures include promoting innovation in the banking sector leveraging on ict, and strengthening the credit reference bureaus to provide for a credit scoring framework. finally, ladies and gentlemen, allow me once again to applaud genafrica asset managers limited for organizing this forum. thank you!