We must overcome all such adversities, however, with dignified and indomitable hearts as proud stakeholders in the central bank, and in that sense may this year go down as a historic one. In this new Year of the Snake, I wish the very best of fortune to all of you and yours, and to all members of the BOK family.
Turning to price developments, we have seen a fall in the HICP inflation rate for December to 2.0%. The same rate was estimated by Eurostat for January. In the course of this year, inflation rates should fall below 2% and remain in line with price stability thereafter.