ales michl : the current level of inflation still makes it impossible to lower interest rates speech by mr ales michl, governor of the czech national bank, during the discussion of the " financial market supervision report for 2022 " in the senate of the czech republic, prague, 27 july 2023. * * * president, esteemed senators, good afternoon, i am honoured to be here with you today. one year ago, in july 2022, the new cnb bank board took over responsibility for the monetary policy and financial stability of our country. the situation at the time was as follows : first, we had the highest inflation in history, leaving aside the price growth that occurred during the country's economic transition in the early nineties. second, during the liquidation of sberbank, lawsuits were brought challenging the liquidation process. these lawsuits were brought both by representatives of private firms and by representatives of regions, cities and municipalities. helping to ensure the transparency of the process of liquidating sberbank was important for us in terms of financial stability and credibility. and third, we took up the reins of the cnb at a time when it had posted its largest loss and the worst financial results in its history. we have started to deal with all of these problems. let's first look at how we reduced inflation : we opted for a strategy of keeping interest rates unchanged at 7 %. interest rates were at their highest level in more than 20 years and were already sufficiently dampening economic activity. key to our strategy was that we supplemented it with a strong koruna policy. the koruna was at its strongest level ever in spring of this year if you take the monthly average for april 2023. the stabilisation of interest rates together with the strong koruna meant we had the tightest monetary conditions in 25 years. i am therefore now able to communicate to you the results of our work so far : inflation has started to come down gradually from 18 % in september. inflation is now already just below 10 %. but it is still not at a level we would be happy with. inflation is still high. it is at a level which still makes it impossible to lower interest rates. this level of inflation requires us to adopt a hawkish policy stance. it is necessary to ensure that inflation does not remain persistent and decreases further. as regards the second problem, it was important for financial stability for us to become active members of the creditors'committee in the process of liquid

miroslav singer : czech central bank head sees lowered risk of deflation – interview in the wall street journal interview with mr miroslav singer, governor of the czech national bank, in the wall street journal, conducted by paul hannon on 11 october 2014. * * * the threat of a slide into deflation or a long period of very low inflation in the czech republic has diminished, the head of the country ’ s central bank said saturday, although he intends to maintain the weak - koruna policy at least into the start of 2016. in an interview with the wall street journal during the annual meetings of the international monetary fund in washington, miroslav singer said he had been encouraged by the stimulus measures announced by the european central bank since june, since he had expected it to take longer to react to very low inflation rates. mr. singer also said that he was confident the central bank could bring its weak - koruna policy to an end without risking a “ snapback, ” or a sharp strengthening of the currency. the czech republic is a member of the european union, but has chosen not to use the euro. it does have close economic ties to the currency area and particularly germany. as a result, low growth and low inflation in the eurozone have been a big problem for the central bank. mr. singer said that while the central bank remains worried about the possibility of another “ hiccup ” in the eurozone, he is less concerned than he was before the ecb first indicated in may that it was preparing to take action. “ the outcome was more positive than i would have expected five months ago, and things look less gloomy than they appeared before they ( ecb policy makers ) found some consensus, ” he said. the eurozone ’ s persistent economic weakness has been the main concern for policy makers gathered here over recent days. those concerns were heightened by a run of very weak data from germany that indicated the economy may have contracted for a second straight quarter in the three months to september. mr. singer believes those figures from august that recorded large falls in industrial production, manufacturing orders and exports are not reflective of the underlying state of the german economy, but instead the fact that there was a larger number of holidays than usual taken during that month. he said the czech economy, which has a similar focus on industry rather than services, had experienced similar volatility in output over the summer months. “ i would be unpleasantly surprised if the weakness in germany continues, ”