It is kept up at the beginning of the period by the fact that unit labour costs, that is, the labour cost per unit produced, has increased relatively quickly in recent years as a result of weak development in productivity. The National Accounts for 2008 point to weaker productivity and a larger increase in unit labour costs than we were expecting at our monetary policy meeting. Moreover, the krona has weakened substantially since the autumn, which is expected to lead to higher imported inflation. You now have to pay more than 9 kronor for a US dollar and more than 11 kronor for a euro. Compared with a basket of currencies belonging to our most important trade partners, what is usually known as the TCW index, the krona has fallen by more than 20 per cent since September. The krona has continued to weaken since the monetary policy meeting. What the weaker GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2008, the increased unit labour costs, the weaker krona and other new information means altogether for our assessment of the Swedish economy is something we Executive Board members will have to consider at our next monetary policy meeting on 20 April. I shall now move on to the fourth part of my speech, about current monetary policy in Sweden. The Riksbank has cut the repo rate to 1 per cent and may need to cut it further At the most recent monetary policy meeting on 10 February the Riksbank cut the repo rate to 1 per cent.
With better understanding, the likelihood of a Shariah convergence is higher and this will enable the creation and trading of Islamic financial instruments at the international arena to be more universally accepted, as interpretations will be uniform and consistent. Harmonisation of the differing views among the scholars from different schools of thought is necessary to enhance the global development of Islamic banking and finance. I believe, at this juncture, the right approach is to advocate mutual respect in any Shariah discourse where there are differences in opinions, interpretations and practices. To complement the efforts to create a sustainable and comprehensive Islamic financial system, consumer education and awareness on Islamic banking and finance should be extensively undertaken. Concerted efforts between the governments and Islamic financial fraternities should be engaged to develop such a consumer education programme. Such programmes would increase transparency on the virtues and availability of Islamic financial instruments offered by the Islamic financial institutions. How consumers can expect to benefit will depend on how well informed they are about the financial services being provided. Barriers across geographical boundaries can be removed by leveraging upon the advances on Information Communication Technology to create an integrated internet platform as means for the knowledge sharing on research findings, conference discussions, Shariah rulings and other vital information on Islamic banking and finance. Improvements can be made to the existing internet portals to be more comprehensive with linkages to other useful information providers. Equally important is the consumer protection infrastructure.