The principal change in the activities of the Slovak central bank (NBS) after the introduction of the euro on January 1 is that it no longer decides on Slovakia's monetary policy. Its other powers remain in place, however.
"We'll manage Slovakia's reserves, carry out integrated supervision of the whole financial market, secure the system of payments, cash circulation and many other things that we've already been responsible for," said NBS governor Ivan Šramko to TASR news wire.
Šramko will now also be a regular member at meetings of the European Central Bank (ECB), whereas before euro adoption he acted only as an observer. The NBS governor stressed that the ECB is an institution with an extraordinary reputation.
"It's important that the ECB's main goals are identical with our monetary policy, with our main goals, especially support for low inflation," said Šramko, adding that, consequently, there won't be any great changes in Slovakia's monetary policy.
6. Jan 2009 at 17:00
