times a year. statistics was one of the first areas in which such co - operation was established. this is entirely logical, since without the creation of a basic statistical framework it would not have been possible to communicate on monetary policy matters. among the most important outcomes was a creation of monetary survey. this survey made it possible to compile monetary and credit aggregates. one of the preconditions for influencing the money supply was to establish what is known as the “ monetary base ”. the ongoing liberalisation process meant that it was no longer important to divide the balance of payments statistics into koruna and foreign currency transactions. this classification was replaced by a standard breakdown into transactions between residents and non - residents. numerous statistics linked with regulation were gradually abolished as individual areas of economic activity were liberalised. these examples merely illustrate how the central bank ’ s entire statistical system was rebuilt from scratch. let me now move on to the more recent past. in 1999 we began to co - operate closely with european institutions. the main topics included monetary and banking statistics, balance of payments statistics and more recently also financial accounts, government financial statistics and general economic statistics. the development of statistics was influenced by a need to standardise each area to ensure compatibility between the eu member states and the candidate countries. hand in hand with these contacts, we began to work much more closely with the czech statistical office. in the area of statistics the czech statistical office is the natural and closest partner of the czech national bank, since these two institutions are the major producers of statistical information in the czech republic. the czech statistical office conducts a far wider range of statistical surveys, providing aggregate information on the national economy, territory, climate, environment, population, elections and other areas of life and activity of our country. the czech national bank is above all a user of economic statistics and collaborates most closely in this area. as both a user and a partner, we can affirm that the quality of the office ’ s statistical output has increased immensely over the transformation period. examples include the publication of national accounts according to international standards and the compilation of data on the government debt and deficit. the czech national bank focuses mainly on monetary and banking statistics and balance of payments statistics. the harmonisation of the monetary statistics with european standards was recently completed in both main components balance sheet statistics and interest rate statistics. monetary and credit aggregates and interest rates are now methodologically comparable with the data of other eu member states. speaking of harmonisation, i

out of your window as you take off from prague airport on your way home. so this is about lifestyle : good beer, heavy food and bathing. actually, many czechs would say that this is the very definition of how to relax and be cool about the world and life. but this would also be a rather simplistic caricature. so let ’ s go further. ours is a country with a long and entrenched tradition of industrial production and manufacturing. this goes back to the 19th century, to the time of the austro - hungarian monarchy, when this part of the empire used to be its industrial undisputed powerhouse. this tradition has survived through wars and totalitarian regimes to the present day. even now, the czech republic is the country with the highest ratio of industrial production to gdp in the whole of the eu and the ratio is higher than in germany, a fact which many do not know. and it has actually been rising rather than falling over the last 10 years or so. this is manifested in the fact that the czech republic is the second biggest producer of cars per head in the world. moreover, the czech republic and slovakia – which formed a single state until 1993 – are together by far the biggest car - producing countries in the world in per capita terms. with 150 cars produced per every 1, 000 citizens these two countries are well ahead of south korea and germany combined in per head metrics. so whenever you drive your skoda, hyundai, peugeot, kia, volkswagen or even porsche, don ’ t be surprised to learn that they were actually manufactured within a radius of 300 kilometres of prague. by the way, ferdinand porsche, the 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches founder of the porsche car manufacturer, was also born here, 100 kilometres north of prague. many of my friends in the real economy say that the czech republic is a country where everything is produced, from wings for airbus and embraer aircraft ( we are also the biggest producer of ultralight planes in the world, for instance ), through turbines, cars, buses, locomotives and guns to bearings, brushes and semtex. whatever you need to produce you will always find at least one factory capable of making it, the anecdotic evidence seems to be suggesting. as exports obviously feed this country, and as we are so close to germany and the germanspeaking world, you won ’ t be surprised to learn that germany is by far our biggest trading partner, with more