The external financing needs, within the current scenario, are expected to be covered by further inflows of foreign direct investments and by the public borrowing for infrastructure purposes. The current forecast points to a rather stable external debt to GDP ratio. No major pressures are foreseen in the following two years on foreign reserves, and they are to be maintained at the adequate level. Risks surrounding this baseline macroeconomic scenario should not be neglected. For us, as a small an open economy, they mostly come from the external environment and our main trading and financial partners. Although with the latest monetary easing of the ECB the downside risks to the euro zone growth are less pronounced, and in general the global growth risks are more balanced, they are still present and if being materialized, could impact the economy. Additional source of risks are the sharp and sudden swings in the primary commodities prices, which for country like ours, can change the envisaged economic profile to a large extent. A new, additional source of risks is the current domestic political context, which can harm the economy, if not being tackled swiftly. Of course, the risks are challenging and are to be closely monitored. This is even more pronounced, given that the policies’ space at the current juncture is to a great extent exhausted. Hence, the continuation of the structural reforms remains paramount and a challenge, as it can further increase the resilience of the economy, mitigate the risks and reduce the policy burden.
For us as emerging country, with foreign bank presence, the global financial regulatory reforms also pose challenges, as they can possibly stimulate deleveraging, reduce access to financing and financing flows to the private sector. At the end, let me also avail myself of this opportunity to emphasize yet again our continuous efforts to align with the EU requirements in all areas of operation, especially the banking regulation and statistics, notwithstanding the efforts and the progress done in all other fields. Thank you for your attention. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3