bank prevail so they can have conservative strategy also in our country. this exactly was the reason that caused panic in the public, that some banks have problems in their main offices. has the situation been stabilized a little in this regard? the situation here is mainly stable. although there are occasional rumors in the public, the data do not mirror that, and we did not have registered, in any moment, that the deposits plunged with the banks the main offices of which are facing with problems. the deposits, generally, were increasing during all these past several years. clearly, we tried to explain to the citizens and i think that they understood well, that the deposits stay here in macedonia, and that they are not taken abroad, they are invested in the macedonian economy and there is absolutely no reason for fear for losing the deposits. speaking of banks, the companies are those being less credited than the households. does it mean that the banks do not trust the economy? it is fact that the last year, year and a half, the banks have been more focused on the households, and less to the companies. the main reason for that is the higher risk with the companies, because the bad placements with the enterprises got higher in the last two years, while with the households, they stagnate, or even decrease. it certainly has reflection on the bank perception and their behavior. however, with the introduction of the reserve requirement instrument, the rise in the savings deposits become evident, but can such instrument stimulate the credit growth, as well? yes, in the recent 12 months, we have taken several measures, especially with the reserve requirement, which were directed towards : firstly, stimulation of the crediting and secondly, changes in the savings structure in favor of the denar savings for the account of the euro savings. certainly, the measure which became effective in january where we reduce the reserve requirement for lending to net exporters and producers of electricity is already productive, we have already extended such loans worth approximately euro 70 million this year, while the measure that should underpin the denar savings for the account of the euro savings became effective at the beginning of the year and we expect that the banks will adjust their interest rate policies to this measure in the following months. did your forecast from the beginning of the year materialize, that the government is not going to borrow much on the domestic market, at least in the first quarter? within this period, since the beginning of the year, the government is

the influence of the payment systems on monetary policy needs to be assessed not by efficiency alone, but by reference to the velocity of money, defined as the average frequency with which a unit of money is spent in a specific time, under the assumption of a given money supply. velocity of money circulation is endogenously determined by the economic agents ’ decisions regarding liquidity holding, lending, borrowing, investing, consumption and labour. yet an increase in the efficiency of payment systems increases the velocity of money circulation exogenously. from a monetary policy point of view it becomes important to estimate the quantitative and qualitative impact of this exogenous change. an increase in the efficiency of payment systems results in an increase in the use of accounts relative to the use of banknotes and coins. less time is required for each peace of money or securities to lie unused in an account between two successive payments, leading to a shorter time period between inflow and outflow, i. e. to a higher velocity of money in bis central bankers ’ speeches circulation. the new situation is reflected in a higher turnover in markets, provided that economic agents are able to use the electronic forms of payment, are able to monitor their cash flow and are confident that the increased efficiency does not compromise security in terms of fraud. the task of the central bank is to facilitate a more efficient management of liquid funds. an efficient management of liquid resources enables economic agents to use cashless payment systems not only as a signal for their willingness to pay, but also to pay for the exact amount they owe. cash payments, in contrast, make economic agents incur costs in the form of interest foregone and increased security risks however, the increase in the velocity of money circulation is not linear. as technological advances in payment systems are seldom used at their maximum capacity, the increase in their efficiency is a gradual, rather than spasmodic process. in order to better estimate the impact of technology - driven change on the velocity of money in circulation and thereby on monetary policy, central banks thus need to use data from a variety of sources in sum, payment systems are an essential precondition for the implementation of operational monetary policy and their degree of sophistication has a direct impact on the velocity of money circulation, thereby influencing monetary policy itself turning to financial stability, there is a strong link between efficient payment systems and financial stability. financial stability implies that the financial system is robust to systemic risk, i. e. the risk that problems in one