national bank of serbia introductory speech inflation report – february 2022 dr jorgovanka tabakovic, governor belgrade, 18 february 2022 ladies and gentlemen, esteemed members of the press, dear colleagues, welcome to the presentation of the february inflation report. we will give you an overview of recent economic trends, our new macroeconomic projections, as well as monetary policy decisions made in the period since the previous report. since our last meeting in november, the global economy has been marked by geopolitical tensions, deepening energy crisis and further growth in cost - push pressures on a global scale. in addition, we are faced with persisting problems in global supply chains and the spread of the omicron variant, to which the leading world economies reacted differently. all of this has led to additional mismatches between demand and supply and to new inflationary pressures globally. energy and food prices recorded a sharp rise worldwide. unlike in the previous crises, besides oil prices, the prices of gas and electricity also recorded robust growth in international commodity exchanges. global strengthening of cost - push pressures and the spread of the omicron variant in our key foreign trade partners led not only to the upward revision of inflation projections, but also to a slowdown in economic activity and a downward revision of gdp growth projections. despite unfavourable circumstances in the international environment, the nbs kept its november projection of real gdp growth for this and the following years. in 2022, as well as in the medium run, gdp growth is expected at 4. 0 – 5. 0 % range, with the central projection in all years measuring 4. 5 %. overall risks to the projection are judged to be symmetric and, as so far, those from the international environment being tilted to the downside and those from the domestic environment to the upside, including primarily government investment and better results in attracting fdi inflows. besides, it will be easier to achieve the 2022 projection as we are building on excellent trends from the last quarter of the previous year, in which, despite the slowdown in the euro area, serbia recorded real gdp growth of 6. 9 % y - o - y or 1. 6 % s - a relative to q3 2021. this was largely a result of the record level of government investments, but also fdis, whose inflow in 2021 reached eur 3. 9 bn and thus surpassed the record high from pre - pandemic 2019. over the past few weeks

jorgovanka tabakovic : digitalisation, system upgrade - delivering the digital dividend opening speech by dr jorgovanka tabakovic, governor of the national bank of serbia, at the presentation of the european bank for reconstruction and development ’ s ( ebrd ) transition report 2021 – 2022, belgrade, 11 march 2022. * * * ladies and gentlemen, esteemed colleagues, welcome to the national bank of serbia! we are the hosts today, but this event is organised by our partners from the european bank for reconstruction and development ( ebrd ). therefore, i ’ d like to welcome mr colangeli, whom i have met at the kopaonik business forum, as well as mr sanfey and mr plekhanov, who are the face of the ebrd before us today. the fact that the ebrd has compiled and published its transition report for 28 years tells us that this report has passed the test of time and has the seal of approval of its audience. each year, the focus of the report is on an area that contributes to faster and sustainable economic transition. in the latest report, this area is digitalisation. i will focus on the fourth chapter of the report – fintech and banks in transition, which pertains to the digitalisation of financial systems and the effects which the implementation of new technologies has on the financial system as we know it. it is old news that over the past several years there have been substantial global changes in the financial services sector. banks, which are traditional participants in this market, are increasingly joined by new institutions from the technological sector, offering innovative products. we are talking about fintech, as well as international tech giants, notably in the social media sphere – the so - called big tech. how do banks react to their emergence? they have a choice to either treat the new market participants as competition, or at least as an incentive that would encourage them to speed up their own work on innovations and development of advanced services. the second choice is to welcome these companies as partners, and to make full use of the effects of such synergy on the development of society. in the modern age, which requires fast adjustment to client needs, everyone is creating niche markets where they can have a competitive edge. and as long as society as a whole is benefiting from changes that do not threaten stability, and yet save time and money, they will be one of the factors of development