In particular, the cooling in the housing market points towards weaker growth than expected next year. The picture of the euro area and other parts of the world is that developments have rather been slightly stronger than we assessed in June. Back in June, we envisaged fairly high growth in Sweden over the coming years. The statistics received since then confirm that the economy is growing at a good rate. Household consumption and housing investment have grown more rapidly than expected. However, both the number of persons employed and the number of hours worked have been lower than expected. This reflects the fact that productivity growth has been surprisingly high again. Companies have thus been able to increase production without needing to take on so many new employees. Most indications are nevertheless that the labour market will continue to improve. Generally high lending and the fact that household indebtedness and house prices are continuing to rise rapidly support the picture of strong demand. Rapid increases in energy prices have contributed to inflation being higher than the Riksbank’s forecast over the summer. However, the oil price has fallen during the autumn, although it is as usual difficult to know whether this trend will continue. The oil price, like other energy prices, has a tendency to fluctuate considerably. There has been a recent downward adjustment in expectations of future energy prices. BIS Review 96/2006  1  The strong productivity growth will contribute to unit labour costs being low this year.
d. Fourth, to position the financial system to facilitate an orderly transition to a greener economy. e. Fifth, to advance value-based finance through Islamic finance leadership. 31. These aspirations paint a picture of a dynamic and vibrant future. That is indeed what we hope and strive for. We ought to be excited about the prospects and possibilities of the future – but we must ensure it is built upon a bedrock of resilience, so that whatever progress we secure is not short-lived. 32. For the financial sector, decades of continuous effort to strengthen the financial system – be it to build buffers or to implement measures to deepen and develop our financial sector – has been crucial to ensure that it can support economic growth. In the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis, the comprehensive reforms of the banking sector resulted in more robust and well managed institutions. This in turn supported a more resilient banking sector and enabled banks to achieve greater scale to serve the broadening needs of a diversifying economy and expansion in the region. We also advanced strategies to deepen our bond markets, to be a stable and alternative source of funding for the economy. 33. I can remember how tough it was to push those reforms though, and to get them done but those efforts meant that when the GFC happened, Malaysia’s financial sector was in a strong position to withstand the shock.