dimitar bogov : republic of macedonia – celebrating monetary independence opening address by mr dimitar bogov, governor of the national bank of the republic of macedonia, at the gala event on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the monetary independence of the republic of macedonia, skopje, 26 april 2012. * * * honorable president of the parliament of the republic of macedonia, honorable fellow governors of central banks, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, let me wish you all a very warm welcome and thank you for accepting our invitation to attend this gala event on the occasion of our landmark anniversary – twenty years of the monetary independence of the republic of macedonia. on this day, april 26, we recall the numerous challenges that we faced, the numerous difficulties we have gone through in the past twenty years exactly. on this day, we are reminded that the beginnings were not easy and that those beginnings emerged in a period of, i can say without false exaggeration, huge enthusiasm of all individuals involved in creating our own independent state with all attributes that this state should have. in this reminiscence of the persons who were involved in the monetary independence, i especially feel the need to point out the name of the first prime minister of the independent republic of macedonia, the academician nikola kljusev, who played one of the leading roles not only for the monetary independence, but also for many other decisions of that time, important for the completion of statehood. on his initiative, on december 19, 1991, the government adopted a decision which obligated the national bank to start printing value coupons. this decision, adopted in greatest secrecy, was a legal basis for all operational actions that allowed the new currency, the denar, to be presented to the public on april 26, the following year, 1992. on this day, also on the initiative of the academician kljusev the systemic laws were adopted, as well as the document on the anti - inflationary program, which, unfortunately, did not survive the fall of his expert government. on this day, besides recollecting the past, we are called to look towards the future. here we look at the importance of low inflationary expectations for the efficiency of the economy and the role of the national bank in maintaining these expectations. in fact, academician kljusev had devoted his entire scientific work to the issue of efficiency of economic policies. for the central bank, as well as for the commercial

pressures which in themselves would result in faster development of the domestic economy, as well as more positive output gap compared with the countries of the eurozone, would also lead to more pronounced interaction with the increase in unit labor costs. the perception of close coordination between the central bank and the government in dealing with this challenge would mean that both public institutions are aware of the need to adjust to the conditions that the maintenance of price stability through the exchange rate brings. this adjustment would prompt the government, through dialogue with social partners, to advocate a moderate growth of wages, i. e. wage growth which will take into account productivity in both the tradable and non - tradable sectors. this would lead to increased employment, while simultaneously improving the competitive position of enterprises, which would alleviate the emergence of imbalances in the economy as a whole. finally, i would add that we, at the national bank, have learned a lot from the mistakes that economic policy - makers have done in the past. but, as confirmed by the history of our institution, monetary independence is perhaps the decision that best helped us to contribute to the improvement of the efficiency of the economic policies, and thus improve the living standard generally, in a state - making, institutional, economic and practical way. long live this great anniversary! bis central bankers ’ speeches