In this regard, I am pleased to say that Hong Kong has done reasonably well so far. Within a few years, Hong Kong has become the global hub for offshore RMB businesses, with the largest RMB liquidity pool and being the largest offshore RMB bond issuance and asset management centre in the world. As for the Belt and Road Strategy, Hong Kong as an IFC is uniquely well positioned to play a crucial role. However, since it is a new strategy aiming to cover markets that are less familiar to most of us, there will unlikely be too many “low hanging” fruits. Putting it bluntly, Hong Kong must work doubly hard to get into the game and stay ahead of the others. In this connection, the launch of the Infrastructure Financing Facilitation Office (IFFO) by the HKMA in early July is a concrete step to help Hong Kong capture the business opportunities that may lie ahead. This is only the beginning of a challenging process to build Hong Kong as the preferred platform for implementing the Belt and Road Strategy. Please rest assured that the HKMA stands ready to collaborate with the industry and the practitioners on this important mission. The first panel of today’s Summit will discuss Hong Kong’s value proposition in the Belt and Road Strategy, including the facilitating role to be played by IFFO. Technological advancement and financial services 10.
Given the lack of second round effects on inflation, these latter’s impact, as previewed, results to be a transitional one. Inflationary domestic pressures remain low, as showed by the core inflation performance of non-tradable goods. The rates of these important factors of inflation remain at 1.2 and 2.4 percent, respectively in April. This trend is expected to be observed even in the near future, as long the Albanian economy shall continue to be characterised by low rates of capacities utilisation, by a controlled expansion of monetary indicators and by the anchored inflationary expectations. Bank of Albania, to fulfil its target for inflation, has observed a cautious monetary policy, supplying the needed liquidity in the market, in line with economy needs. Financial markets are shown stable, by downward interest rates, low and dampen risk primes. Monetary developments during March have confirmed the uprising expansion of monetary supply in economy, which rose by 10.2% in annual nominal term. This performance is grounded by the drop of currency outside banks rate and the stable growth of deposits in the banking system. *** The Supervisory Council of the Bank of Albania, during its discussions concluded that inflationary pressures on the domestic economy are expected to be balanced over the medium term.