Mugur Isărescu, NBR Governor
On behalf of the Board of the National Bank of Romania, I am honoured to welcome all of you at this conference. It is my pleasure to welcome to Bucharest the Governor of the Bank of Greece – Yannis Stournaras.
A few days ago, on March 25th, Greece celebrated its national day which commemorates the Greek War of Independence. Allow me to congratulate Her Excellency Ms. Evanghelia Grammatika, ambassador of the Hellenic Republic to Romania and our Greek guests. Χρόνια πολλά, Ελλάδα!
Greece and Romania have an extended common past – so do our banking and financial relationships. Here are a few examples from recent history.
In the early years of post-communist Romania, on our path to a market economy, Bank of Greece was close to the National Bank of Romania, offering technical assistance with the process of institutional transformation. Governor Christodoulou came to Bucharest several times to personally encourage us through the challenges of reform. Years later, the cooperation between the Bank of Greece and the National Bank of Romania embraced more advanced valences. Together with Governor Garganas, we established the Central Banks Governors’ Club of Central Asia, Black Sea region and Balkan countries.
The Greek investors have been among the first to bring capital to our country. I fondly remember that in 1994, Alpha Bank – steered at that time by chairman Costopoulos – was the first Greek bank to come to Romania; benefiting from the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Alpha Bank established Banca București – the first commercial bank with western capital in post-communist Romania.
Now allow me to introduce our special guest:
Governor Stournaras is widely recognized not only for his role as a central banker, but also for his remarkable academic career. As a distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Athens and previously, as research-fellow at Oxford University, Governor Stournaras carried out extensive academic work, building a focused area of expertise in macroeconomics, European monetary integration, and financial stability.
He has been the Governor of the Bank of Greece and member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank since June 2014. In his previous role, as Minister of Finance of the Hellenic Republic between 2012-2014, he acted decisively to overcome the structural challenges of Greece’s debt, being a respected economist that will remain well-known for navigating the way out of the deep crisis, promoting structural reforms and advocating for Eurozone stability.
We are now in a complex international economic environment, affected by regional conflicts, hard and divergent geopolitical views, frail global value chains and an increased volatility in a relatively uncertain environment. In addition to these overlapping challenges, our economies also bear the impact of climate change and the pressures of the transformative forces. But in these challenging times, the present and the future should remember the lessons of the past.
Without further ado, I warmly invite Governor Stournaras to share his views on the current challenges for central banks’ policymaking, in his presentation: „The Greek Economy Ten Years after the Crisis: Lessons for National Economies, the Eurozone and Future Challenges”.
COMMENTS