How do we see our objectives in the current conditions? Our priority task remains unchanged– it is the price stability. Despite a leap in inflation last year and earlier this year, our medium-term inflation target is still 4%. We estimate it to be achievable. Another important task is to maintain financial stability amid current turbulence. And third, we ultimately aspire to creating balanced macroeconomic conditions to put the economy on the track of sustainable economic growth. We will have to tackle these issues in challenging external conditions. The pace of the global economic growth will not be high; other countries’ monetary policy will keep influencing the Russian economy; the oil market is likely to remain unstable. Therefore, the economy will have to adjust to the new realities when both oil prices and exchange rates fluctuate both upwards and downwards. A few words on the banking industry. Economic developments of the last year could not help but impact banks. Generally, all the economic indicators showed quite good dynamics last 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  year – assets and lending were on the rise. Profits, though 40% lower than in 2013, were non-negligible at the level of 600 billion rubles. However, the situation certainly began to change. We can see slower lending rates. In some months of the year we have registered losses in the banking system as a whole. Profits in January-May this year amounted to nine billion rubles.
Financial market conditions are expected to be increasingly complex with rapid changes in technological advancements. The ever-changing geopolitical positioning also continuously shifts investment priorities and risk appetite. Closer to home, while domestic growth is expected to remain sustainable, many uncertainties and challenges persist, and thus it is critical to ask ourselves, how do we respond? With the current 10-year Financial Sector Blueprint approaching the end of its horizon in 2020, the time has come to chart our path for further development. At the Bank, we are in the midst of 2/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  much research, analysis and formulating possible paths for our future. Based on this, we will be looking to engage financial markets stakeholders to set the framework for market development over the next five years. We have set a shorter horizon, acknowledging that in this era, changes occur rapidly and the longer horizon is rife with greater uncertainty than before. While these discussions are ongoing, I wish to share three main focus areas for the next plan as follows: Firstly, given the active adoption of advanced technology in all aspects of our lives, the digitisation of the financial markets is not only an obvious step forward but an inevitable one. With evolving business practices and economic activities, there is urgency for us to adapt and elevate our infrastructure to ensure that our markets remain competitive and dynamic, while preserving an environment of financial and market stability.