overcome two crises from the recent past. the consequences of the 2020 pandemic crisis and the russian invasion of ukraine in 2022 were borne with much less disturbance and stress due to the fact that croatia was at the time a serious candidate for euro area accession, which helped anchor exchange rate expectations, thus making it easier for the cnb to maintain the stability of the kuna exchange rate against the euro and focus on countercyclical monetary policy measures, and contributed to alleviating pressures on the public debt market. in the period preceding the introduction of the euro, markets recognised the continued improvement of macroeconomic fundamentals that were closely linked to the process of introducing the common currency. this process developed in parallel with the ( already mentioned ) convergence of interest rates in croatia with those in euro area countries as well as with the gradual improvement of credit rating, today literally on the verge of a1 investment grade rating, which has never been the case before. let me remind you that croatia's rating in 2017 was bb, two notches below investment grade. in the years that followed, credit rating agencies increased the rating and outlook for the croatian economy. in 2019 croatia reached the minimum investment grade rating ( bbb - ) and in 2022, against the background of the eu council decision on the adoption by croatia of the euro, the credit rating was raised to bbb + ( by two notches ), coming close to a investment grade rating. let me briefly refer to one aspect of euro introduction that raised concerns with part of the general public : inflation, that is, the effect of euro introduction on prices. i am glad to be able to confirm, on the basis of analyses and assessments made by cnb and ecb experts, and subsequently eurostat, that the impact of euro introduction on prices has been very mild. according to the cnb's analysis ( and that of the ecb ), the euro's impact on prices was 0. 4 percentage points, whereas the eurostat's analysis 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches established that this impact was at the maximum 0. 2 percentage points. this level of the euro's impact on prices was within expectations and completely in line with the experience of other countries that had introduced the euro before croatia, despite the circumstances of historically high global inflation under which croatia introduced the euro. it was precisely this context that gave rise to sporadic comments stating that the timing for euro introduction was inappropriate owing to high inflation and the strong

did not invest money, like goldman sachs, in shares, options and highly controversial bonds, but focused with your majority – rather conservatively – on savings books, german government bonds and life insurance policies. because of the ecb ’ s low interest rate policy, they are currently experiencing a clear drop in wealth. savings accounts and insurance policy pay - outs are melting. draghi : interest rates have been very, very low for a long time – and they will presumably stay like that for a while longer. people see that the returns on their savings and the profits from their life insurance policies are shrinking. we understand the concerns of savers. but now let me ask a question : is that the only factor? my answer is no. after the crisis, germany became a safe haven. a lot of money therefore flowed into the country, with the result of falling interest rates on medium and long term bonds – the interest rates of which are not set by the ecb. this has hurt some savers but also benefitted borrowers, for example those who bought houses. wait a minute – it was your institution which lowered the key interest rate step by step, to 0. 05 % at the moment. savings are no longer worth very much in this environment. draghi : in an environment of widespread economic weaknesses and falling inflation, our monetary policy has to be accommodative. is that cause or effect? we have to look at the whole euro area. if we raised interest rates, the crisis would be worse. stability would suffer – and that would hurt investors and savers even more. we are keeping interest rates low to stimulate the real economy and to achieve price stability. in order to save the euro, you announced decisive measures in the middle of 2012 – “ whatever it takes ”. does that mean that you are consciously putting german savings at risk to save the euro? draghi : no. quite the opposite. the risk for the german tax payer has gone down. recall that internal loans between some central banks in the ecb system, the famous target 2 loans, were previously much higher. they have already gone down by half. the answer is not really reassuring. low interest rates are still low interest rates. draghi : in the united states, interest rates were also low and people complained about it. when the recovery took hold, long term interest rates started to rise again. likewise in the euro area, interest rates will rise and normality will return. many german