This concern has led to an active debate among monetary policy makers around the world on the appropriate reaction to the run-ups in house prices that we have recently seen in many markets: Should central banks raise interest rates? And how should they prepare themselves to react if housing prices decline? These are the issues that I will address today.
Competitiveness and profitability  Both the decline in inflation (and the key policy rate that led to a fall in the weighted average interest rate from 18.15% to 12.95% in the past seven months), and the rise in income from increased number of employees and new business units, will have a major influence on the commercial bank profit and loss account as early as in this year.