Jaime Caruana: Overview of the Spanish economy in 2005 Address by Mr Jaime Caruana, Governor of the Bank of Spain and Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, to the Governing Council of the Bank of Spain on the occasion of the presentation of the Annual Report 2005, Madrid, 15 June 2006. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, The vigour of the world economy in 2005 confirmed that the current expansionary phase is proving one of the most dynamic of recent decades. In the past few years, average growth rates not seen since the late seventies have been attained. There are two particularly notable facets to this expansion. First, unlike in previous booms, the world economy has benefited from the salient contribution of the emerging economies. And further, this high growth rate has been accompanied by very moderate inflation rates, a most significant development in the light of their concurrence with a marked and persistent rise in oil prices. The vagaries of oil prices have, indeed, been central to international economic developments in recent years. The momentum of worldwide demand for energy, combined with its slowly expanding supply which is, moreover, fairly volatile owing to geopolitical tensions and climate-related shocks, pushed oil prices up throughout 2005 and the opening months of 2006 to an all-time high in early May. In turn, other commodities, including most notably industrial metals, have risen substantially.
Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Launch of the Asian Bond Fund (ABF) Malaysia Bond Index Fund Speech by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the launching of the Asian Bond Fund (ABF) Malaysia Bond Index Fund, Kuala Lumpur, 18 July 2005. *  *  *  Ladies and Gentlemen, The "Exchange Traded Fund" is a significant and highly successful product of financial innovation that is found in more developed financial markets. First introduced in Canada in the early 1990's, the use of Exchange Traded Funds gathered momentum after the listing of the S&P Depository Receipts Trust Series 1 (also known as "Spiders") on the American Stock Exchange in 1993. Since then, the Exchange Traded Funds have grown tremendously and there are currently a total of 350 such funds on the global exchanges with about USD313 billion in assets, comprising not only stocks and bonds but also currencies and commodities. Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my great pleasure to be here today at this ceremony of the inaugural listing of the ABF Malaysian Bond Index Fund, the first Exchange Traded Fund in Malaysia. In the EMEAP region, (the East Asia Pacific region) the ABF Malaysian Bond Index Fund represents the second country sub-fund to be launched, following the successful listing of the ABF Hong Kong Bond Index Fund on 21 June 2005. Six other EMEAP country sub-funds will be launched in due course.