speech by gediminas simkus at the joint webinar “ investment in the baltics : from pandemic to war ” 2022 - 05 - 20 joint bank of lithuania, bank of estonia, bank of latvia, and european investment bank webinar “ investment in the baltics : from pandemic to war ” 20 may 2022 welcome and opening remarks good morning, dear vice president ostros, governor muller, governor kazaks, dear colleagues and webinar viewers, a warm welcome to this joint webinar organised by the bank of lithuania, the bank of estonia, the bank of latvia, and the european investment bank ( eib ). 1 of 1 we are living in extraordinary times : just as the pandemic pressures started to ease, we got hit by another huge shock – the war in ukraine. let me stress that we stand in full solidarity with ukraine. to date lithuania welcomed some 51, 000 ukrainian refugees and is one of the largest donors of bilateral aid to ukraine in percentages of gdp. while we hope for a swift end to this unjustified war, currently the risks that the war in ukraine escalates remain high. we are experiencing an unprecedented degree of uncertainty. this is worrying, as numerous surveys and reports show that uncertainty is the largest barrier for private corporate investment in the baltics. fortunately, policymakers can address this. as we witnessed in the months following the outbreak of the covid - 19 pandemic, high quality and well - targeted public investment in times of high uncertainty enhances output. it also crowds in private investment, rather than crowding it out. the covid - 19 pandemic offered an opportunity for firms to become more digital. demand for electronic services rapidly increased, creating perfect conditions for expansion of electronic payment service providers. growth in electronic payments created value in the lithuanian financial sector. for instance, one of the lithuanian payments start - ups recently attracted an impressive 65 mln us dollar series a funding. the growing fintech sector also contributes towards solving the structural problem of concentration in the lithuanian financial sector. at the same time, business funding through crowdfunding platforms also gained traction. as pointed out in the eib investment survey that will be presented here shortly, total investment in lithuania rose to 5 % above pre - pandemic levels by the end of 2021. a similar pattern was observed in latvia, while in estonia investment in 2021 stood at staggering 30 to 40 % above pre -

savenaca narube : balance of payments - a central banker ’ s view opening address by mr savenaca narube, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the regional course on balance of payments and international investment position, suva, 11 - 22 april 2005. * * * introduction mr jon craig and mr michael andrews at pftac our course facilitators - mr jens reinke of the imf, mr mahinder gill - a former division chief of the balance of payments and external debt at the imf ) and mr paul mahoney of the australian bureau of statistics. distinguished delegates on behalf of the government of fiji and the reserve bank i would like to welcome you to and the workshop participants to this regional training course on balance of payments. this is the first regional course and supplements the existing courses held by the imf in washington d. c. and at the singapore training institute. i would like to extend my appreciation to the imf and pftac or organizing this course. these forums provide an excellent opportunity for statisticians and economists in the region to exchange knowledge and experiences. why is the balance of payments important? the balance of payments show a country ’ s transactions with the rest of the world. the balance of payments records all the flows of goods and services of a country with the rest of the world, and flows of other types of income into and out of the country. the current account brings all these flows together. it is important for domestic policy making because it shows that calls on a country ’ s foreign savings equals net savings in the domestic economy. so a deficit can reflect domestic conditions. this may be good - if it comes about because investment exceeds domestic savings, but it ’ s bad if its due to excess consumption. regardless of the cause of a deficit, a deficit has impact on debt and this can lead to crisis if debt becomes too large and reserves become too low. debt and reserves are recorded in the international investment position. so the balance of payments system is vital in economic policy making, because of the important relationship between external and domestic economic developments, timely, reliable, and comprehensive balance of payments statistics are an indispensable tool for economic analysis and policy making. indeed, with the growing interdependence of the world ’ s economies, the need for such statistics - which reflects in part the underlying movement towards greater liberalization and integration of markets - has increased over time. also, balance of