Dimitar Bogov: Around a decade after the crisis - heading to the new global cycle and monetary policy normalization Opening speech by Mr Dimitar Bogov, Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, at the 7th Annual Research Conference: Around a Decade after the Crisis: Heading to the New Global Cycle and Monetary Policy Normalization, Ohrid, 12 April 2018. * * *  Honorable Governors, Your Excellences, Dear representatives of central banks, Ladies and gentlemen Let me welcome you all to our 7th Annual Research Conference this year in the beautiful city of Ohrid. Considering the current global surrounding, this year’s conference “Around a Decade after the Crisis: Heading to the New Global Cycle and Monetary Policy Normalization” addresses a relatively long period since the onset of the global crisis and the need to face new challenges. At this point, the questions to ask ourselves and to discuss during the conference would be: how strong and sustainable is the ongoing global recovery, what are the reasons behind the subdued inflation, what should be the pace of monetary policy normalization, are the banks now more resilient, are we better prepared to prevent the risks? Maybe they are simple questions, however, like in many other cases in real life and a real economic framework, there are no simple answers. The current global economic recovery is broadly spread across different regions in the world and associated with positive economic sentiment indicators.

The public debt and fiscal consolidation are still an area that requires additional vigilance by the policymakers in emerging economies, especially in light of changing financial conditions in the upcoming period. Around a decade after the global crisis, we have seen that the banks, globally, are in a quite better shape. However, the reforms and Basel requirements should be fully implemented in order to build resilient banks. The digitalization is yet another interesting phenomenon of today’s life and unavoidable element of the current global environment. Fintech in banking industry provides new revolutionary approach to the supply of banking services, as a response of the banks to the changing habits of their clients. This creates new opportunities, but also risks that regulatory authorities must be aware of. Therefore, globalization and innovation in financial sector call for deepening the international cooperation between authorities in different fields of operation. This conference is just one of the possible forms of this international cooperation. Today, we will discuss the empirical findings from the research papers received upon our Call for papers, on different and very important central banking issues, while tomorrow we will have panel discussions on policy issues with high-level representatives from central banks and international institutions. I believe that all together, we will make contribution by answering the pending economic questions that I mentioned earlier and exchanging experiences that will enable us to better cope with the future challenges. I wish you interesting conference, fruitful discussion and pleasant stay in Ohrid! Thank you. 2/2  BIS central bankers' speeches