jorgovanka tabakovic : stability in serbia is not and will not be jeopardized, because it is necessary for the better life we are building introductory speech by ms jorgovanka tabakovic, governor of the national bank of serbia, at the money fair 21 conference, online, 16 april 2021. * * * dear hosts, sponsors, friends and participants in money fair conference 21, it is a pleasure to be able to greet you even in this virtual format. i would also like to congratulate the hosts for persevering and managing, in these still challenging circumstances, to organise such an event. тhe topic of the panel is the response to the coronavirus - induced pandemic and that is exactly what i would like to talk about. immediately upon the breakout of this unprecedented crisis, we adopted a large package of economic measures in serbia, worth close to 13 % of gdp, to support the domestic economy. the nbs was also the “ first resort ” during the crisis, as we took a range of measures to support households, corporates and the government to weather this crisis financially when such support was most needed. in that way, we preserved access to sources of funding and secured even more favourable financial conditions. we supported domestic demand and preserved stability at times when global pessimism was at its peak. it was exactly the size of the package, well - calibrated measures and the speed of the response that played the key role in preventing the spillover of the negative effects of the pandemic on the labour market and all other aspects of life and work. dear colleagues, in an environment when short - term economic indicators of business confidence plummeted across the world, we had to design comprehensive economic measures, implementable in the shortest time possible. in serbia, the nbs and the government responded already in the first days of the pandemic – each within their own competences, but, same as always, in a coordinated manner. that way we preserved the confidence of corporates and households that their central bank and their government will always be there for them, taking care of jobs, salaries, production capacities and liquidity. we were able to respond with a huge package of measures owing to the monetary and fiscal space we had created in the prior period. had we postponed the adoption of measures, the consequences of such irresponsible behavior, to our citizens and our economy, would have been enormous. in what sense

? we would have witnessed unemployment, factory closures, billions of euros of gdp lost. had we not responded immediately and comprehensively, we estimate that gdp would have fallen by over 6 % in 2020, while the recovery, as was the case after the earlier, 2009 crisis, would last three to five years. due to the global deterioration of the epidemiological situation by the end of last year, we extended our support through the economic package of measures this year as well. having in mind everything we did, including the latest extensive measures by the government, serbia will recover from the consequences of the pandemic during this year. we will continue to monitor and assess movements and to send with our actions a clear message to everyone – that serbia ’ s stability is not and will not be threatened, because such stability – political, monetary and financial – is the cornerstone of a better life we are building. dear friends, 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches we would not be able to talk today about sustainable development and innovation had we not protected our economy from the consequences of the pandemic with our measures. i am pleased that almost each month the nbs responded with some of its measures. i am not happy that we had to respond, but i am pleased that in the prior period we had created room for such a response and that we responded with the right measures. so what did we do and what have we done? to support economic recovery, in 2020 we cut the key policy rate four times, to the current level of 1. 0 %. through different operations, we supplied liquidity at carefully measured maturity and at a favourable interest rate, acting as the “ first resort ”. we enacted numerous measures to support household, corporate and government sectors to weather this crisis financially, at times when they needed it the most. we thereby propped up the liquidity of all sectors, helped sustain access to funding and ensure even more favourable financial conditions, with interest rates on new dinar corporate loans reduced by additional 0. 8 pp in 2020. thanks to the mix of all the adopted measures, last year interest rates on dinar and euro - indexed corporate loans almost equalised, and this is something we have never seen in serbia before. moreover, in january this year the interest rate on dinar corporate loans of 2. 2 % was at a significantly lower level than the interest rate on euro loans which measured 2. 8 %. as a result of all the measures we have adopted,