office activities, in the process of reserve management. no transaction can take place without the back office. it provides a vital service to the front office by ensuring that all funds flow in a timely and correct manner and all the necessary documentation is completed. inaccurate or untimely trade capture can have implications for the p & l and risk management process. if the central bank does not capture the correct transaction, then position and reported credit exposure might be incorrect. having in mind the importance of the back office service to the reserve management process, one of the goals of the workshop will be to provide best practices in the area of settlements, then different services provided by the bis central bankers ’ speeches custodians, and the importance of appropriate it tools to perform secured and efficient settlements. all the aspects cover over this week will enable to improve and make more efficient and controlled environment for the conduct of the reserve management transactions. in this regard, although back office activities should be separated from front and middle office activities, it does not mean that operations should be considered as separate from the business. on the contrary, the closer operations management is the pulse of the business, and the better communication channels between all the areas in reserve management function, the more responsive operations to changes in the business. ultimately, the overall reserve management process will be better controlled. to conclude, i wish all of you a fruitful and efficient participation in the workshop, with hopes that you will have incentive to take out the maximum from all the issues to be discussed with the distinguished lecturers from the world bank, as well as between each other during the exercises. have a nice week during this workshop, in skopje. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

anita angelovska bezhoska : welcoming remarks - vienna initiative full forum welcoming remarks by ms anita angelovska bezhoska, governor of the national bank of the republic of north macedonia, for the vienna initiative full forum, skopje, 22 - 24 march 2023. * * * your excellences ambassadors, minister of finance, dear governors, chair of the vienna initiative, distinguished representatives of european and international institutions dear ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor and pleasure to welcome you at the annual full forum meeting of the vienna initiative. as helen keller said - " alone we can do so little, together we can do so much. " this saying lies in the essence of the vienna initiative – partnership among international institutions, public and private stakeholders whose common objective is safeguarding financial stability of cesee region. established at the height of the gfc to prevent nation - based uncoordinated policies that could led to systemic banking crisis, we have come a long way, expanding activities and fostering financial stability in the region. this initiative is particularly relevant for countries that still do not belong to the european union family, do not have access to eu backstop facilities and as such are even more vulnerable to exogenous shocks. collaboration and coordination is key in times of crisis. unfortunately, in the last three years we are in the mode of " perpetual crisis ". severe global shocks of unprecedented nature are hitting the world economy and unfolding into the " great return " of inflation and cost of living crisis. these implies abrupt change of the environment in which central banks operate. from more than a decade of extremely accommodative monetary policy to deal with the " low prices " puzzle, all of the sudden we had to shift gears to deal with multi - decade high inflation. last year world inflation accelerated close to 9 %, which is more than twice as high as the average from the previous two decades ( 3. 9 % ). cesee economies are not an exception. last year inflation abruptly accelerated reaching 13. 3 %. even more so, we are not dealing with a conventional demand shock that drives the surge of prices, but rather with multiple shocks. although some empirical studies are emerging, precise disentangling of supply versus demand, external versus domestic, transitory versus permanent drivers at least at this point seems challenging. however, what seems clear is that we are seeing faster and stronger passthrough of these shocks into prices. in the past, pass -