when its hard - won independence had to be put to work. thus, central bank independence built into the country ’ s law code is a treasure without which price stability is rarely possible. but equally important is the perception of independence by central bankers themselves. this perception, in turn, depends on the compatibility of the monetary policy regime with the preferences of the population. it is often overlooked, however, that central bankers have an impact on these preferences. rhetoric matters a great deal, and communication is now one of the most potent tools of monetary and other policy. true, enhancing financial literacy and altering public preferences in the process is a thankless, tiresome, long - term job, one that is often only appreciated years or even decades later. the man responsible for instilling a low - inflation mentality in czechs, alois rasin, was shot dead in 1923 by a young communist. at that time, rasin ’ s policies were very unpopular among some groups of the population. but nowadays his legacy underpins the thinking of czechs about inflation, for better or worse, and through that, the stability of the czech currency. thank you for your attention. references : ichiro iwasaki & akira uegaki, 2017. “ central bank independence and inflation in transition economies : a comparative meta - analysis with developed and developing economies, ” eastern european economics vol. 55 ( 3 ), pages 197 – 235. thomas j. sargent, 1982. “ the ends of four big inflations, ” nber chapters, in : inflation : causes and effects, pages 41 – 98, national bureau of economic research, inc. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches

different from that of an inflation targeting country with a floating exchange rate. but there may be important differences within these two broad groups, too. so it should come as no surprise that a number of countries have indicated a clear preference for the “ fast - track ” approach, whilst others have adopted a more cautious approach. i hope that our debate today will cast more light on these country differences. eu accession per se will probably have relatively little effect on the way monetary policies are conducted in the new member states. it may, however, create some challenges, for example by affecting inflation rates. given that the harmonisation and integration processes in the economic field have been under way for a long time, i personally do not expect accession itself to be a pronounced shock. nonetheless, there are still some remaining factors, such as the final steps in the harmonisation of indirect taxes, the introduction of eu customs policies and the adoption of the common agricultural policies, which may have a non - negligible one - off impact on inflation. it is certainly useful to debate this impact in terms of its likely size and the appropriate responses by the central banks. eu accession is also likely to influence the real convergence process in the medium run. in fact, it has been influencing it long before the accession date itself, through fdi inflows, declining risk premia, pressure for structural and legal reforms, and so on. related to that, there have been many discussions on the potential trade - offs between the real and nominal convergence processes. it has been questioned whether the accession countries can simultaneously achieve low inflation, nominal exchange rate stability, consolidated public budgets and sufficiently fast economic growth. it has often been argued that economic growth should be given priority at the current stage, and only later on should the nominal convergence goals be pursued more vigorously. as a result, we have heard many warnings against fast emu entry. in reality, however, most of the accession countries have already achieved impressive results in the nominal convergence process. they are now among the countries with moderate or even very low inflation rates, and their nominal interest rates have converged to the eu levels. in the majority of cases, no practical problems with achieving the maastricht criteria on inflation and long - term interest rates are thus envisaged. moreover, this progress has often been achieved simultaneously with satisfactory growth performance, even though some countries have gone through periods of growth slowdown correcting previous imbalances in their economies. therefore, i think that the