in the third quarter 2009 compared to a deficit of US $ million in 2008. Similarly, owing to favourable performance of the external sector, international reserves have increased to US $ million in 2009 (end-Sept) from US $ million in December 2003. (v)  Equity markets have begun to reverse their large losses and FDI and portfolio flows are returning to Zambia’s financial sector. BIS Review 161/2009  5  (vi)  Zambia’s financial sector remains strong and stable largely due to banks being adequately capitalised, as confirmed by a recent Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) Survey by the IMF and World Bank. VI. Challenges  The unfavourable effects arising from the recent global financial and economic crises are huge but surmountable. To this end, we need to do more than what we have done in the past. One of the key challenges relates to need to maintain macroeconomic stability. Macroeconomic managers in less developed countries have to be careful not to use the global economic crisis as a reason to slip back to unsustainable macroeconomic policies of the past. In addition, the crisis has brought to the fore, once again, the ever important challenge of accelerating the diversification process. Our reliance on export of primary commodities, copper in the case of Zambia, exposes our countries to external risks such as the ones we are currently experiencing. VII.
What is more, the European payment ecosystem has become extremely reliant on non-European players – today the global card schemes, and tomorrow the Bigtechs – with the result that it now has limited control over the management of personal data. In parallel, the rise of crypto-assets and above all of stablecoins means they could potentially try to replace central bank and commercial bank money, even though they offer none of the same guarantees in terms of liquidity, service continuity and neutrality. In light of this situation, Europe needs to develop a payments strategy. I have often pushed for this over the past two years. Recently, we have made decisive progress thanks to the strong involvement of the ECB and the Commission. We now have to put this into action and “deliver” – this is urgent for the next two years. This strategy notably combines three elements: 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  1/ European regulation on stablecoins: on 24 September, the European Commission published its MiCA project, which in our view provides a good basis for reconciling innovation with consumer protection and financial stability. 2/ An acceleration on the European central bank digital currency (CBDC), the “digital euro”. We haven’t yet decided on it, but we need to be ready to decide if it becomes necessary, and as soon as it becomes necessary.