As I have acknowledged previously, we gave some consideration when the exchange rate was at its peak in early 1997 to undertaking some form of so-called sterilised intervention in an attempt to reduce the exchange rate and increase interest rates - without risk to the inflation objective - since most of the inflationary pressures were coming from sectors relatively immune from exchange rate pressure but more susceptible, we believed, to interest rate pressure.
Considering these advantages, and listening to the demands from our users, the Eurosystem changed the business hours of its T2 RTGS system as part of the consolidation project that was completed earlier this year. On weekdays, settlement of interbank and customer payments now begins at 02:30 a.m., instead of 07:00 a.m. before.