For the first time in history, the Czech National Bank is having assessments of the implementation of its monetary policy drawn up. The aim of the materials, which are being worked on independently by three higher education institutions, is, among other things, a more accurate ability of the CNB to predict the future development of the economy, as well as a potential restart of relations between the central bank and the government. The Governor of the Czech National Bank, Aleš Michl, emphasized this at the CNB Discussion Forum in Pardubice on Tuesday. The results of the assessments should be known by the end of this year.
“This is the first external assessment of monetary policy in the history of the CNB. We expect the revision to improve our forecasts and the functioning of the three bodies in the form of the CNB, the government and the private market,” said Aleš Michl. According to him, it is a common standard in the world, which, however, arrived in the Czech Republic only now.
Among others, academicians from the University of Economics in Prague, Martin Mandel and Karel Brůna, or Czech economist at London’s Queen Mary University, Roman Šustek, are working on a total of three thematic areas of assessments. “If such an effort will have a concrete or fundamental effect, it depends on the results of the given study and, above all, how the bank board will react to them,” says Port’s investment platform analyst Lukáš Raška.
Nevertheless, experts judge that the balance sheet is appropriate mainly because of the “Czech” path during the era of inflation, when the domestic economy was among its biggest European victims. “I consider this to be a normal procedure after such a dramatic deviation of inflation from the target,” says ex-governor of the CNB and chief economist of Generali CEE Holding Miroslav Singer.
