mugur isarescu : policy support and the emerging “ new normal ” how well - positioned are romanian firms? opening speech by mr mugur isarescu, governor of the national bank of romania, at the european investment bank ( eib ) webinar “ investment and investment finance in romania ”, 23 february 2022. * * * vice president thomsen, distinguished audience, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this year ’ s webinar organized by the european investment bank in partnership with the national bank of romania, titled „ policy support and the emerging “ new normal ” : how well - positioned are romanian firms? ”. i am delighted that so many of you could join us virtually this morning. today, as we are shifting to a new phase of the global pandemic ( and hopefully the last one ), we will discuss the latest developments in investment and investment finance in romania. we will try to provide an overview of what is needed in order to use the economic recovery as a springboard for change and transition to a more digital and greener economy. please allow me to extend a warm welcome to vice - president christian kettel thomsen and his colleagues from the european investment bank, including chief economist debora revoltella and ms. lara tasan zanin, the head of the eib office in bucharest. i would also like to express our appreciation for the eib ’ s continuous involvement and support in engaging with stakeholders in romania through this valuable series of events. romania and the european investment bank share a long and fruitful partnership that has favored investments in important sectors of our economy. i consider there is large space for this partnership to expand, also based on new challenges from the european agenda. as always, this event centers around the eib ’ s investment survey, an excellent country analysis conducted by eib experts. the conclusions of this survey represent a welcome addition to those of our central bank ’ s own survey on the access to finance of non - financial corporations in romania. our survey captures the opinions of the real sector on : ( i ) the most pressing problems that firms are facing in their activity ; ( ii ) the perception on the financing cost ; ( iii ) the perception on the implications of a possible appreciation / depreciation of the local currency ; ( iv ) the perception on the impact of climate change. coming back to the eib, its investment report analyzes the state of investments in the eu in the pandemic, climate change

allowing inflation to temporarily overshoot to compensate for past years of weak price growth. i will not go into detail regarding inflation and all the variables that allow us to acknowledge and deal with it. deputy governor liviu voinea thoroughly addressed the inflation puzzle and the present whereabouts of phillips curve, during dinner last night. allow me to return to the first topic of the day and say a few considerations about artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data. the interconnected use of new technologies is 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches already a common practice in many operational fields, such as the defense industry, the automotive industry or the healthcare sector. it is, therefore, natural that new technologies would penetrate the financial sector. their applications are diversified in design and scope, examples of which are : algorithmic trading, portfolio optimization, scoring and pricing models. moreover, the use of these new technologies receives more and more attention in the financial and economic areas, as the transition from classical banking sector products and services is growing exponentially. in this context, the focus moves from the individual to more general issues and the question arises about the effects that the trinity described by artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analytics, have on the financial system. implicit answers to this question are formulated as considerations of financial stability. in other words, the key question is related to the costs and benefits that the new technologies listed above have on financial stability. the answers to this question are quite varied, given that this issue has not been thoroughly investigated up to this moment. among the best - known benefits, some of the areas where progress can be made by using the specified technologies are : regulatory compliance, systemic risk monitoring, fraud detection and supervisory effectiveness. in contrast, the associated disadvantages could be linked to explanatory issues, the need for human resource adaptation, new data related concerns ( privacy issues ), or increased dependence on third parties. nevertheless, as consumers and companies are embracing these new technologies, it is the policymakers ’ role to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities and to formulate adequate policy responses and tools in order to adequately address them. then again, big data is not the only example where views have dramatically changed over time – other relevant cases are the negative interest rates employed by the european central bank, an unthinkable measure in the pre - crisis era, or the unconventional monetary policy programs implemented by central banks worldwide. a valuable lesson to be learnt here is to always challenge preconceptions