The world needs transition finance – to provide the funding support for businesses and sectors that are not so green, to adopt cleaner technologies, increase energy efficiency, and become greener over time. Inclusive transition is about decarbonising without compromising social and economic development. Hundreds of millions of people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America still do not have access to electricity, modern sanitation, and drinking water. Economic development will drive demand for fossil fuels, which is still the cheapest way to generate electricity and power mobility in many parts of the world. The switch to cleaner energy cannot be made in one leap. We need to shift the energy mix progressively, first to relatively less emissions-intensive fuels like natural gas, and then to renewables. Finance can be a powerful enabler for such a transition. Second, Asia – this is where the battle against climate change will be won or lost. Asia accounts for half of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and is home to about 60% of the global population. The issues of transition are most acute in Asia, with growing affluence and rapid urbanisation alongside the urgent needs of poverty alleviation. About 85% of the energy consumed in Asia comes from fossil fuels and Asia's demand for energy is projected to double in 2030. Asia is also most vulnerable to climate change, with large populations living close to locations prone to drought, floods, and rising sea levels.
However, the moderate growth in the M3 monetary aggregate indicates that this situation has not changed since the last monetary policy assessment. Thus, the monetary analysis shows that we can continue pursuing our expansionary monetary policy for the time being, without incurring additional risks. Since the first quarter of 2003, the year-on-year growth rate for mortgage loans has exceeded 5%. Mortgage loans to households slowed slightly at the end of 2004, but since then their rate of growth has accelerated to a level higher than that recorded in recent years. Mortgage loans to companies, which had declined over the past five years, have also risen again since the beginning of the year. Prices continue to increase in the real estate market, a development to which, in our view, the low mortgage rates have contributed. Well aware that our monetary policy is still expansionary, we are keeping a close eye on developments in the real estate sector. In view of the above-mentioned developments, we have decided to leave the target range for the three-month Libor rate unchanged at 0.25-1.25%. What were the most important factors that led to this decision? There were three of them. First of all, we needed to downgrade our expectations with respect to the development of the economy. However, there are no signs of any cyclical downturn and the economy continues to recover, even if this recovery is somewhat delayed and muted. Second, the lacklustre economic activity is being accompanied by an improvement in the medium-term outlook for inflation.