radovan jelasic : price stability and state ownership in serbia speech by mr radovan jelasic, governor of the national bank of serbia, at a roundtable discussion with representatives of the government of serbia, belgrade, 3 july 2007. * * * ladies and gentlemen, let me focus on this occasion on two topics : 1. stability of prices in the light of interplay between fiscal and monetary policy, and 2. state ownership. few days ago i heard someone say : “ it is the stable currency that everybody wants at first, and then they want as much as possible of the same currency ”. that is a true picture of serbia today. and, while monetary policy sets a priority to constantly watch over the first part of this sentence, our citizens soon forget that a “ surplus brings on a headache ”, i. e. that by increasing spending we keep going back to the first part of the sentence and demand “ stable currency. ” it is of course unrealistic to expect citizens to gladly forsake some of their earnings in favour of the state so that the currency could remain stable. on the other hand, that is exactly why countries have or should have a responsible and professional government which takes into account medium and long run solutions to macroeconomic issues and is fully aware that the second part of the above sentence “ and then they want as much as possible of the same currency ”, in fact means inflation. in contrast to the nbs whose main objective “ to attain and preserve price stability ” is precisely defined by the law, governments are free to define their objectives and are not bound by any legal formulations. governments often alter their objectives as they go along. they are often unwilling to remember promises made only a few days earlier, not to speak of those made before they came to power or those made in their early days in power. as the governor, i am very pleased that the parliament has clearly defined our objective and that the objective is very good – “ to attain and preserve price stability ”. i am convinced, however, that that particular objective was set much more in line with the principle of “ follow thy neighbour ” policy than due to some deep seated conviction that price stability is key to economic development, improvement in the standard of living of all citizens, attracting foreign investment, etc. for forty years yugoslavia and serbia have been trying to attain “ growth and development ” and putting stability of prices into the second or the third line of interest. the culm

at any time and any place, since the launch of our nbs ips system in october 2018. to date, around 37. 5 million transactions worth a total of around rsd 363 bn have been executed in this system. for us, this is an important indicator that instant payments 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches have become the implied service quality for payment service users. users have also become quickly accustomed to the service enabling payment of monthly bills in a few seconds only, using the standardized nbs ips qr code and mobile banking applications. we have also enabled instant payments at merchant pos, both physical and online, at around 2, 200 points of sale within roda, idea and mercator retail chains and at nis company petrol stations. we are currently working on expanding the acceptance network to include several large retail chains. a number of online traders have enabled instant payments in their web shops ( including stores selling technical devices but also, to my great pleasure, local publishing houses and bookstores ). financial service consumers in the republic of serbia are among the first in europe to be able to conclude distance financial contracts, with full transparency, security and protection of their rights. it is now possible to open a payment account, apply for a payment card or loan without going to a bank. in 2020, we had 71. 5 thousand distance contracts, which is roughly 62 % more than in 2019, with over 6, 000 of these contracts concluded using video - identification of the consumer. let me add another thing. innovations make life easier. innovations save time, our most valuable resource. but technologies should be in the service of people, and not the other way round. they are a means to an end, and not an end in themselves. technology alone is not able to solve major economic challenges : it cannot set priorities or make decisions on spending or investment. i believe you will agree that knowledge and human capital are among the key drivers of development and change in the 21st century. dear friends, the need to send a powerful, clear and timely signal of stability, hand in hand with a proactive approach and measures which take account of both the intensity and the duration of negative trends to which response is needed, becomes even more important at times of crises. if central monetary institutions recognize this, they will be a few steps ahead of the challenge. i believe that figures show that this is precisely what the national bank of serbia has done. timely measures taken as soon as the co