Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, let me end by acknowledging all the institutions and individuals that have joined in the commemoration of this year’s World Savings Day. In particular, I wish to thank the Pensions and Insurance Authority; Securities and Exchange Commission; Bankers Association of Zambia; the Ministry of Finance; Rural Finance Expansion Programme; the German Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation; Financial Sector Deepening Zambia; NGOs and all the public as well as private sector organisations that have continued to support the stepped up national financial literacy campaigns since 2012. I THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS US ALL! 3
The other is to fix structural shortcomings in the euro area architecture that had allowed imbalances to build up in the first place. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  On both counts, the euro area has made considerable progress. Despite strong recessionary headwinds, euro area governments have markedly improved their fiscal positions. Average government deficit ratios fell by more than a quarter over the last two years and, excluding interest payments, were approaching balance at the end of 2013. Simultaneously, most of the stressed euro area countries have made remarkable progress in gaining competitiveness. Over the past five years, the cumulative unit labour cost differential vis-à-vis the euro area have fallen by more than 20 percentage points in Ireland, around 15 percentage points in Greece and Spain, and almost 10 percentage points in Portugal. This was accompanied by substantial improvements in the export dynamics of these countries. Overall, we see the euro area’s economic recovery gradually taking hold, albeit at a slow and uneven pace. In parallel, the architecture of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has been strengthened in ways that many would have considered inconceivable two years ago. Perhaps most important for monetary policy, and certainly most topical for this conference, are the concrete and ambitious steps towards a banking union. By establishing the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), European policy-makers have demonstrated a firm commitment to a stringent and uniform application of common supervisory standards.