jorgovanka tabakovic : women ’ s leadership and sustainable development - truly equal speech by dr jorgovanka tabakovic, governor of the national bank of serbia, at the international conference “ women ’ s leadership and sustainable development – truly equal ”, belgrade, 2 october 2019. * * * the most profound mystery is that of human being. human being, man and woman. women are accused of impractical and dangerous sentimentality, but can we say that men are inherently realistic? immortal genes and the alternation of matriarchy and patriarchy – what does it all prove? the relativity of superiority and differences. a man can live without a woman, but without women, there is no future. women are still kept outside of certain areas and roles in society. this is the mirror of gender essentialism which is often a tool of ostracism. women are gaining ground in central banking and of this process i can speak confidently only from my own experience. there are women who have been loved three times in their life. first by their mothers, who delivered them to this world, then by their husbands whom they married, and lastly by the children they delivered. the same is true of men. and love is that sacred root of plants that exude strength and love – for everything they do, for everyone around them and for anything they may face. all who are born yearning to be loved, and raised with a lack of love, have a more difficult time succeeding in life, i think, i believe – because i can only speak with certainty about my own experience. i had the support of others but not because i was a woman, rather because i desired knowledge, i was open to learning, talking, committed to myself and to others. i didn ’ t seek the company of those who wanted to indulge me, but of those who were able to think and see far ahead, beyond their own pocket and their own lives. we should be aware that this world should not be a simple alternation of matriarchy and patriarchy but rather that we should support each other ’ s best characteristics while moving towards the holiest of goals. there are such riddles and challenges ahead of us that require various voices, different experiences and wisdom. we shouldn ’ t labour under the illusion that all women would give the same response to any particular question. we should therefore include more women in decision - making, because women are talented and dedicated, and want to

, my main concern is not whether private individuals will manage to repay their loans or not. the real question here is what will happen to enterprises. with the government itself paying a margin of 3 - 4 %, which source of finance can enterprises rely on? and if the entire economy can only borrow at double - digit interest rates, and even such borrowing is in short supply, how will this reflect on the country ’ s economic growth? at this point, we may safely conclude that the measures taken by the us and eu governments and their respective central banks have so far produced no results, that money has not been costlier for over a decade, that the key policy rates of central banks and the market price of money ( euribor ) are still moving in the opposite directions, that excess money pumped into the banking system by the ecb is returned in the form of deposits rather than lending, while trust among financial agents has troughed and the economy is already heading for recession! 2. it is practically impossible to foresee the future course of the crisis. earlier taboos, such as the valuation of balance - sheet categories, are being broken overnight, the governments are nationalizing the banking sector in order to “ strengthen the market mechanism ”, stock exchanges are even rewarding such moves and there is no end to government plans! learning from history, the governments have clearly decided that it is better to overreact than underreact, but, unfortunately, with little success so far! the future course of events will largely hinge on : • how far will the government go in acquiring ownership of the banking sector and when and how will it pull out – if, indeed, it wants to? • to what extent can central banks replace the financial sector as lenders and should they do so? • what will happen if governments are really faced with the obligation to pay out a major portion of the promised funds, which could well lead to bankruptcy as in the case of iceland? the situation is already unravelling, and a number of countries – primarily ukraine, hungary and kazakhstan – are mooted as potential “ victims ”! why these countries? the answer is fairly simple : a ) high level of debts maturing in the next year – question of possibility and cost of refinancing, b ) high share of foreign currency clause indexed loans, with savings mostly in the domestic currency – at times of exchange rate turbulences, c ) heavy dependence on inflow of foreign capital ( foreign direct