Governor Softić Pariticpated in Work of the 5th Meeting of Governors of Central Banks of the Region 3/31/2017 Tweet March 31, 2017 Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) Senad Softić, Ph.D. participated in the 5th Meeting of Governors of Central Banks of the region, which was held on March 31st 2017, in Umag, Croatia, organized by the business magazine “Lider”. This year's summit of the Governors, which, along with the CBBH Governor, brought together Governors of the Central Banks of Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro (Vice Governor), Kosovo and Croatia as a host, was focused on the theme “The euro as an anchor of the monetary regime”. The goal of the discussion was to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the current monetary regime from the positions of each country individually, in order to encourage the controversy on the subject of the advantages and disadvantages of introducing the euro. Today's debate has been particularly challenging taking into consideration that the panel was attended by Governors of the countries having different status: members of the euro zone, those that have implemented a unilateral/informal euroization, entering the process of accession to the euro zone and countries under regime of the fixing exchange rate or the Currency Board arrangement, as being the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It turned out that, despite the different models, all countries in the region tend to stability through pegging to EUR as a currency anchor. Talking about the experience of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Currency Board, Governor Softić emphasized that this monetary regime, which has been in force since the establishment of the CBBH, contributed significantly to the establishment of monetary and financial stability in Bosnia and Heryegovina. “The exchange rate of the national currency is strictly pegged to euro for almost 20 years. In the economic program of the European Union for Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Currency Board has been assessed as an anchor of stability, as of monetary, so as of financial one, thus the international financial institutions, international agencies for assessment of the sovereign credit rating rely on it. I think that, although the Currency Board is a conservative monetary policy, in BH context it is not limiting the economic growth, on the contrary. The real effective exchange rate shows no significant deviations from the equilibrium position, which implies that the relatively low economic growth and insufficiently rapid growth of exports in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a consequence of price non-competitiveness but, among other things, lower productivity in relation to trading partners. Finally, there are aspirations for EU membership, where it is necessary to take into account the stages of economic and monetary integration of the country into EU”, emphasized Governor Softić. Beside the Panel of Governors, this year's event gathered also the commercial bankers who during the discussion touched on financing economic growth. This year's keynote speaker was the Regional Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Central and Eastern Europe, Bas. B. Bakker, who gave a review of the changes in monetary regimes of countries with growing economies in Europe.
