robert holzmann governor oesterreichische nationalbank welcome remarks vienna, november 25, 2019 check against delivery! looking back on 30 years of transition – and looking 30 years ahead opening remarks conference on european economic integration ( ceei ) 2019 ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this year ’ s conference on european economic integration, the first in this oenb conference series that i have the honor to open in my capacity as the governor of the central bank of austria. let me particularly welcome • professor beata javorcik, chief economist of the european bank for reconstruction and development ( ebrd ) and • my central bank colleagues • vice - governor ana ivkovic, from serbia ; • governor jiri rusnok and deputy governor marek mora, my former student, from the czech republic ; • governor gent sejko, from albania ; • governor bostjan vasle and deputy governor primoz dolenc, from slovenia ; • governor boris vujcic, from croatia. this year ’ s conference on european economic integration ( ceei ) marks a very special occasion. exactly 30 years ago to this day, communist leaders in what was then czechoslovakia bowed to the pressure of hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets led by former political prisoner and the country ’ s later president vaclav havel. yet, it was not just frustrated citizens during the velvet revolution in czechoslovakia who rose against political suppression and central planning, which had produced shoddy economic outcomes, but people throughout the entire former eastern bloc. as a result, the remarkable events of 1989 helped bring down the single most concrete – in every sense of the word – symbol of the 40 - year division of the european continent : the berlin wall. publisher and editor : oesterreichische nationalbank communications division editor in chief : christian gutlederer otto - wagner - platz 3, 1010 vienna, po box 61 in 1989, i was in warsaw, working with the international monetary fund ( imf ). i remember very well spending weeks on end in a room filled with cigar smoke in a lush but shabby hotel, calculating spreadsheets on the fiscal situation of poland together with a junior argentine colleague ( and later division head at the imf ’ s fiscal affairs department ). as a european, i had the advantage of having had better training on public finances than many of my american colleagues. nevertheless, this was not an easy task, given the lack of available data. but we managed

non - performing loans in total shrank to 2. 2 % at end - september. in september, loans to domestic enterprises and private persons rose 4. 3 %, reaching 1 664. 2 million lats. this was the most rapid monthly increase in loans this year ( annual growth was 43. 0 % ). loans to enterprises grew in excess of loans to private persons ( increases of 49. 7 million lats and 19. 5 million lats, respectively ). an increase of 73. 3 million lats was recorded in long - term loans, whereas short - term loans declined slightly. the increase of 19. 4 million lats in mortgage loans was the largest increase in loans. this can be attributed to the fact that the real estate market deepens and people increasingly start construction of housing and repairs of dwelling they own. commercial and industrial credit, which are related with the development of the trade and industrial sectors, increased considerably ( by 18. 9 million lats and 9. 6 million lats, respectively ). the most rapid annual increase was recorded in mortgage loans ( 95. 2 % ). at the end of september, loans granted by banks totalled 1 909. 7 million lats ( a month - on - month increase of 3. 7 % ). in september, total deposits decreased by 2. 8 % ( to 2 702. 1 million lats ), but deposits received from domestic enterprises and private persons ( 1 234. 6 million lats ) rose 0. 5 % over august and 23. 0 % over september 2001. in september, banks'assets ( excluding trust assets ) grew by 0. 6 % ( a year - on - year increase of 26. 4 % ), reaching 3 963. 4 million lats. banks'equity increased by 1. 8 % in september, totalling 365. 9 million lats at the end of september ( a year - on - year increase of 37. 8 % ). banks'profit for the first nine months of 2002 was 39. 3 million lats ( a year - on - year increase of 35. 8 % ). the most significant event in the latvian securities market was the new issue of 10 - year mortgage bonds by the state joint - stock company latvijas hipoteku un zemes banka. these securities have the longest maturity of all latvian securities. mortgage bonds were successfully auctioned on the riga stock exchange and all bonds supplied ( 3 million lats