Paul and I are pleased to be here with you today to discuss the October Monetary Policy Report, which we published this morning. •  Recent indicators point to the start of a global recovery. Economic and financial developments have been somewhat more favourable than we expected in July, although significant fragilities remain.
While unemployment rate further shrank to 3.2% in the first quarter of this year from 3.5% in the last quarter of 2006, inflation was 4.57% in the first quarter after easing from 5.15% last year. In the past few years, the economic prosperity has been largely built on the thriving tourism services sector.