edward scicluna : price stability and beyond – understanding the impact of the ecb ’ s strategy review speech by mr edward scicluna, governor of the central bank of malta, at the finance malta conference, valletta, 20 july 2021. * * * the european central bank ( ecb ) recently published its new monetary policy strategy, following a year - long review process that encompassed multiple layers of stakeholders – including the public. all the monetary policy instruments and concepts were minutely examined by both the experts and the governing council. a number of important changes were made as a result of the review – which was last carried out in 2003. the world has changed since then, and central banks – including the ecb – face numerous new challenges. we need to keep in mind that the ecb ’ s primary mandate – according to the treaty on the functioning of the european union – is price stability. however, the treaty does not specify what price stability means. that is where the ecb ’ s monetary policy strategy comes in, which quantifies price stability and in turn helps to anchor inflation expectations. for some time, the ecb saw high inflation as being the red flag. this is why the target has till now been an inflation rate of ‘ close to but below 2 % ’. what has changed since 2003? structural developments have lowered the so - called ‘ equilibrium real rate of interest ’ – the interest rate that is consistent with inflation at its target rate and where the economy is operating at its optimum. this equilibrium rate has gone down – while in tandem the global economy has had to weather several major shocks, from the global financial crisis to the pandemic. now, low inflation rates are being seen as just as much of a cause for concern and as a result, the target has now been set to 2 % – over the medium - term – and the red flags are not only rates above that, but also rates below it. this decision was aimed at the possibility that the persistent low - inflation environment was being exacerbated by ambiguity about the level of the inflation aim and a perception of the aim being asymmetric. this decision was taken after an extensive assessment of the ecb ’ s unconventional monetary instruments, which looked at which ones were effective in raising output, employment and inflation – as well as how they affected each other. the new symmetric target is straightfoward, clear and unambiguous. this means that it will provide a more solid anchor

yakiv smolii : national bank of ukraine press briefing - monetary policy statement speech by mr yakiv smolii, governor of the national bank of ukraine, at a press briefing on monetary policy, kyiv, 12 december 2019. * * * dear colleagues, please be informed that the board of the national bank of ukraine has decided to cut the key policy rate to 13. 5 % per annum effective 13 december 2019. the nbu speeds up the monetary policy easing, as the rapid appreciation of the hryvnia makes inflationary pressures decline faster than expected. what inflation developments followed the last monetary policy meeting? in november, consumer inflation slowed to 5. 1 % yoy, exceeding our expectations. in such a way, the nbu attained the medium - term target of 5 %, which was set in 2015. the steady disinflation has been driven by a gradual easing of underlying pressures on prices, reflected in a slowdown of core inflation, and by lower energy prices. inflation slowed markedly due to both the strengthening of the hryvnia and an improvement in inflation expectations. the above factors neutralized the pressure on prices from robust consumer demand and worse harvest of some vegetables. i would like to emphasize the reasons for the hryvnia appreciation, which has given rise to much speculation. in october – november, the excess supply of foreign currency was mainly driven by proceeds from ukrainian exports, in particular thanks to a record harvest of grain and oil crops, and selling foreign currency coming from borrowings of state - owned companies. in particular, agriculture and metals industry provided 70 % of foreign currency supply on the interbank market in november. contrary to the common belief, the continued foreign investment in hryvnia government bonds did not have a major impact on the foreign exchange market, unlike in the past months. at the same time, the nbu actively purchased excess foreign currency to increase international reserves. net foreign exchange interventions have totaled more than usd 5. 5 billion since the start of 2019. ( corrected ) besides, our purchases of foreign currency much exceed the inflows from nonresidents. the nonresident portfolio grew by around usd 4 billion this year. thus, net purchases exceeded this amount by more than one and a half billion dollars. this indicates that these are not only nonresidents who create the excess supply of foreign currency. what are the future inflation developments? the stronger hryvnia made inflation decline towards the 5