/ / www. cnb. cz / en / about _ cnb / cnblog / inflation - is - falling - an - interim - assessment - ofthe - disinflation - process - in - the - czech - republic / § we stressed that monetary policy was working and that interest rates would remain high for longer our approach to elevated inflation expectations during price stability after two years, cpi inflation was exactly 2 % in february, march and june of this year. it currently stands at 2. 2 %. at the same time, the inflation expectations of households appear to be elevated ( median at 5 %, mean at 11 % ). cpi inflation inflation perceived by households inflation expected by households ( 12 months ahead ) cnb repo rate ( % ) inflation target ( 2 % ) source : data collect, czech statistical office this time, we cannot rely on the two factors dragging down consumption. real incomes of households are recovering, and economic uncertainty, although still high, has decreased significantly. our approach : we have cautiously eased monetary policy from 7 % to 4. 25 % since december. we have been closely monitoring whether these expectations are having an impact on lending activity, consumption and wage negotiations. so far, the data shows no significant impact on consumption, which is slowly recovering. wage growth remained elevated at 6. 5 % in the second quarter of 2024, but appears to be slowing. lending activity is recovering moderately. we are taking a careful approach and communicating that markets should expect higher rates in the longer term than in the 10 years prior to covid.

zdenek tuma : consolidation before expansion summary of a speech by mr zdenek tuma, governor of the czech national bank, for the conference on " modernising germany - gaining competitiveness for europe ", berlin, 1 june 2006. * * * do we really face the dilemma of choosing between consolidation and expansion? we should look at the integration process from both the political and economic perspectives. from the economic point of view, deepening and enlarging are both primarily spontaneous processes, but this does not necessarily hold for the political aspect. unfortunately, these two perspectives are often confused, which can lead to misleading conclusions. let me consider the economic perspective first. as a recent eu newcomer i can confirm that we observed spontaneous integration with the eu well before the timing of our accession had even been mentioned. therefore, i do not expect the expansion of the eu to end just because there is a lack of political will for enlargement. market forces will keep the surrounding countries “ in the game ”. the political and institutional framework can encourage or discourage this process, but it can hardly stop it. on similar ground, the deepening of the already integrated area is quite spontaneous from the economic point of view. for instance, we are seeing dynamic integration of the financial architecture and a growing number of cross - border mergers in both the financial and non - financial sectors. here, too, an appropriate institutional framework would help, but the consolidation process is going on even without it. therefore, my first conclusion is that from the economic perspective the dilemma between deepening and enlarging is rather imaginary. in fact, both these processes are going on around us at every moment, and the authorities have a limited ability to choose between these two aspects of integration. the political dimension makes the question much more complex. despite the aforementioned conclusion that economic integration is relatively independent of political will, an appropriate institutional framework is undoubtedly important for the pace of integration and the future shape of european markets. but politicians are caught between their vision of an integrated europe and pressure from many of their voters to defend their current positions. their inability to explain the benefits of integration to the electorate is a source of frustration and puts limits on any further political deepening and enlarging of the more and more economically integrated area. this may lead to a temptation to use the argument of an imaginary choice between deepening and enlarging. but businesses will not ask politicians for permission to move to balkan countries or turkey, or to continue concentrating