*  *  Introduction  Ladies and gentlemen First, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. We are now in the fourth year of a crisis that originated in the US housing market but eventually spread throughout the financial system.
The other question that we needed an answer to was; will the public believe that the Bank of PNG is going to use its independence to achieve the objective of price stability. The developments in 2002, and even more so in 2003, was a clear vote of confidence in the actions and the instruments the Central Bank employed to maintain price stability.