gediminas simkus : central europe's convergence introductory remarks by mr gediminas simkus, chairman of the board of the bank of lithuania, at the10th national bank of poland annual flagship conference on the future of the european economy ( cofee ), session ii " drivers of growth and convergence of central european economies ", warsaw, 21 october 2022. * * * good afternoon, dear governors, colleagues, and guests, first and foremost, let me express my joy of being here in warsaw today for this 10th annual narodowy bank polski flagship conference on the future of the european economy. the future of europe and europe's convergence are topics that are crucially important for our region, especially in today's context. economic convergence is a complex theoretical issue, but also poses practical challenges on various macroeconomic, political, and financial levels. varying speeds of convergence and economic growth among european countries, uncertainty and instability in current international markets, and the threat of a worldwide recession in the wake of russia's unprovoked invasion of ukraine all make the discussions in which we are about to engage in not only desirable but essential. to set the stage for our discussion, let me share a few of my thoughts. i consider zeno's paradox1, a philosophical fable, to be fitting when discussing convergence. this fable tells of the swift achilles racing against a slow - moving tortoise. the paradox is that if the tortoise is given a head start in the race, achilles will never catch him, no matter how fast he runs. the argument for this paradox is rather straightforward : achilles must first reach the point where the tortoise was when achilles started, but by that time, the tortoise will have moved further ahead. this story of different speeds and different starting points in time, in my opinion, is analogous to different speeds of convergence. countries differ in their rates of synchronization and growth, their response to exogenous shocks or fragmentation risks, and the macroeconomic adjustment policies they adopt. furthermore, each country in central europe is distinct in its economic, political, social, and even cultural institutions, and the countries'historical context has determined where they each started out on their convergence paths. the collision of all these variables gives rise to theoretical and practical challenges. and that is why we are here. allow me to illustrate my point with this chart depicting convergence trajectories of total factor productivities

vitas vasiliauskas : welcome speech - bank of lithuania real estate conference welcome speech by mr vitas vasiliauskas, chairman of the board of the bank of lithuania, at the virtual bank of lithuania real estate conference, 24 november 2020. * * * check against delivery good morning, dear real estate experts, conference attendees, dear colleagues, i am happy to welcome all of you at the eighth annual bank of lithuania real estate conference. throughout its history, our real estate conference has been held at various venues. this year – not exactly by choice – we are meeting virtually for the first time ever. i must admit – this time we are acting in a pro - cyclical manner. the bank of lithuania was able to save money by not having to rent a separate physical space for the conference. however, this also means, of course, that the commercial real estate market and, perhaps, some of the conference participants or attendees have lost some of their income. therefore, the pandemic has inevitably in one way or another affected everyone and everything, including the foundations of the lithuanian real estate market. for instance, we have observed a slowdown in the growth of house prices after the previous lockdown. expectations of the real estate industry have also taken a turn for the worse : our surveys show that the majority of commercial banks have started to expect a fall in real estate prices, particularly in the segment of commercial real estate. however, the predictions of a looming market crash have not come true. on the contrary – the housing market has gotten over the initial scare and recovered back to the new highs. towards autumn, new house sales already exceeded the average rate of several previous years. and today, we hear more voices discussing new record numbers of transactions in the housing market. what were the reasons behind the resilience of the housing market? we do have certain answers, but they are not yet complete and, probably, not definitive. i am therefore eagerly looking forward to today ’ s discussions and, in order to kick - start them, i will provide several possible explanations. first, i would like to mention positive demographic changes, particularly in vilnius – our capital city. in 2019, we still had doubts as to whether the growth of lithuania ’ s population was a one - off phenomenon. this year, however, it has become apparent : the country ’ s population is growing for the second consecutive year, and this trend is likely to continue, which is in turn a substantial