a. ), confirming yet again the reliance of the banks on domestic sources of financing, rather than on cross - border flows, which might be quite volatile at the current juncture. an important point here is the trend of rising preferences to save in domestic currency, which continued in 2014, reflecting stable expectations and reducing the monetary policy burden. the banking sector remained stable and sound, with solid liquidity and capital adequacy ratio of 15. 7 % at the end of 2014. nonperforming loans of the banks remained at a moderate level during the crisis period, compared with the region. in 2014, they were relatively stable, slightly decreasing to 11. 3 % at the end of the year and remained highly provisioned. the actual and the envisaged economic recovery is expected to further improve the quality and the financial soundness of the borrowers, and to further support the downward path of the npls. yet, vigilance in this area is important to prevent buildup and materialization of systemic risk. last year was no exception in terms of close monitoring of the soundness of the banking system, and changes in the prudential regulation, which were an appropriate balance between the need to support private sector financing, while maintaining the health of the banking system at the same time. what was the monetary policy stance like in 2014 given the already elaborated economic and financial conditions? in general, the accommodative stance was maintained. the main interest rate was maintained at the historically lowest level, the targeted measures to support net - exporting and electricity producing companies were extended until the end of 2015, and certain credit - supportive macro - prudential measures were undertaken. this relatively loose stance was maintained as a consequence of the “ benign ” external position, which did not jeopardize the foreign reserves, and enabled a rather balanced foreign exchange market during the year. low inflation was also in favor of maintaining the accommodative stance. yet, the room for monetary policy accommodation appears to be largely exhausted. the outlook for the 2015 – 2016, is more or less expected to resemble the state of the economy in the previous year. growth of the economy is expected to accelerate to 4. 1 % and 4. 5 % in 2015 and 2016. the fundamental factors to underpin the growth dynamics remain the same. the boost to the export and investment is expected by the new and the existing foreign companies, as well as those envisaged to enter the market

less due to labour quality. during the pandemics, the bulk of the adjustment in fact went through the tfp which declined close to 5 %, as the overall context was barely conducive for innovative decisions. 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches in this context, global competitiveness index in terms of innovation capabilities and ict adoption locates us at the 97th and 70th rank ( out of 152 countries ), similar to western balkans peers, but much further from the advanced europe. jointly with several countries in the region, we were positioned in the group of efficiency enhancers, meaning that reforms must be intensified to increase the growth efficiency and quality. increasing the technological readiness was one of the identified priorities. thus, in the last decade, the macedonian productivity level has been staggering to around 40 % of the level of advanced economies, such as german economy. this clearly points that if we want to grow at stronger pace and in a more sustainable, green and inclusive way, we need to continue intensively addressing the structural hurdles for the key long - term determinants of the growth : labour, capital and productivity. let me focus on productivity. at this point, i think i can bring in the highlight of the latest transition report, i. e., innovation and digitalisation of the economies. the adoption of digital technologies can unleash productivity revival and possibly counteract some forces that act as drag on growth, such as adverse demographic and emigration trends that dampen the labour supply. what is the pace of digitalization of the macedonian economy? the new ebrd digitalization index points to a progress in both segments that are captured by the index – first, the preconditions for the use of digital technologies ( digital infrastructure, skills, regulation, provision of government services ), and second, the actual use of digital technologies by individuals and companies. the progress is particularly visible in the area of regulation and provision of government services, where score has more than doubled. still, overall we are scored about 59 % for digital preconditions and 48 % for the actual use of digital technologies, which is close to the regional score, but still far from the frontier of 100. i think that the scores are useful guidelines on where the policies should be focused on. in our case, it is clear that efforts should be concerted in setting a more adequate digital infrastructure, but even more in raising digital skills. on the latter, as noted in the report, significant