dimitar bogov : what could sepa bring for the banking and the real sector in the republic of macedonia speech by mr dimitar bogov, governor of the national bank of the republic of macedonia, at the event “ what could sepa bring for the banking and the real sector in the republic of macedonia ”, organized by the banking association at the economic chamber of macedonia, in cooperation with the european banking federation ( ebf ), skopje, 13 may 2014. * * * honorable mr. stavreski, vice president of the government of the republic of macedonia and minister of finance, honorable mr. janchevski, chairman of the banking association of the macedonian economic chamber distinguished guests from the banking sector in the czech republic dear representatives of the banking and the real sector in macedonia ladies and gentlemen, one of the primary functions of each central bank is to create conditions for stable, reliable and efficient operation of the payment systems. to achieve this function, and according to the best practices of central banks of the eu member states, the national bank performs four basic roles in the payment systems : operational, supervisory, development and catalyst role. the successful performing of these functions is closely related to the importance of payment systems for a national economy. the proper functioning of the systems for large payments, which are owned and managed by central banks, is important for the effective monetary policy conduct. in circumstances of permanent changes in the infrastructure of financial markets, the supervisory role of the central bank regarding the payment system contributes to the maintenance of financial stability. additionally, the systems for large payments contribute to the coordination of the direct participants in the national payment system, such as the treasury of the ministry of finance, banks and clearing institutions, ensuring finality of all payments in the national economy. in this way, the national bank maintains the vitality of the payment systems as one of the most important components of the financial and economic infrastructure. in terms of achieving the development and catalyst role, allow me to affirm the strategic approach of the national bank, the ministry of finance and the banking association in the development of the national payment system of the republic of macedonia through the adoption and implementation of the strategy for the development of the payment system of the republic of macedonia for the period 2013 – 2017. our shared vision for the development of the payment systems of the republic of macedonia until 2017 is the modernization and improvement of the operations of payment systems through the application of high - tech achievements and gradual harmonization with the standards and

that it is very difficult to separate out the impact of the cash changeover on prices with any degree of precision. any price change could be due either to the changeover itself, because of, for example, rounding up to new eye - catching prices or the pass - through of cash changeover costs, or it might reflect a change in other cost factors, like wages or import prices. this implies that any estimation of the cash changeover effect on prices is surrounded by uncertainty. in order to get some evidence on price changes which might be related to the cash changeover, it is informative to look at the sector level. indeed, for specific services items, prices have increased more than usual, which could be related to the introduction of the euro. for example, eating out, having a haircut or having clothes dry - cleaned became significantly more expensive in the first few months of 2002, and many people in the euro area have noticed this, including myself. in general, price increases have mainly taken place in sectors with a low level of competition and where products are rather differentiated. at the same time, however, it is important to realise that there have also been price increases due to factors unrelated to the euro. for example, in the early months of this year, the extreme winter weather in the euro area, particularly in the mediterranean countries, led to severe supply shortages and thus to higher vegetable prices. likewise, the rise in petrol prices in the first quarter of 2002 cannot be attributed to the cash changeover, but was the result of higher oil prices on the world market and, in some countries, higher taxes. the same applies to cigarette prices in several euro area countries. moreover, it has to be taken into account that the harmonised index of consumer prices, which is used for measuring consumer prices in the euro area, is a broad index covering a very comprehensive basket of goods purchased by households. while it cannot and is not supposed to reflect the cost of living of each single household, it reflects the average cost of living of a representative household in the euro area. therefore, while some items in this goods basket may have gone up in price partly because of the cash changeover, many other items in the basket have not shown any significant price increases. in fact, some goods have actually become less expensive over recent months. one example which might be of particular interest to you, ladies and gentlemen, is the price level of photographic and cinematographic equipment : in july this year the prices