Allow me to identify some of the key challenges that we need to address. First is the risk of a sharper-than-expected global economic slowdown. In its most recent World Economic Outlook (WEO), the IMF revised its global growth forecast for 2019 downward from 3.7 percent last October 2018 to 3.3 percent this April 2019.
Around three quarters of bank assets in the region are foreignowned, mostly by banks from other EU countries. Their subsidiaries and branches have played and will continue to play a central role in improving the efficiency of financial intermediation across the region and contributing to credit availability. II.