András Simor hosts Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank held its regular end-of-year conference ‘Anchor 2013’ today. Guest speaker of the conference was Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, who visited Budapest at the invitation of András Simor, Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank. In his speech to the Conference, Mr Draghi emphasised that the experiences of the past few years have shown that participation in a monetary union places important demands on national economic policies. Mr Simor concluded his lecture by pointing out that economic growth in Hungary requires stability, predictability and confidence.

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank has for several years held its mini-conference entitled ‘Anchor’ in December. In 2009 Alexandre Lamfalussy was our special guest; in 2010 Governor of Narodowy Bank Polski, Marek Belka expounded his views on topical issues of, and challenges to, monetary policy. The guest speaker of last year’s conference was Stefan Ingves, Governor of Sveriges Riksbank, who gave a speech on the aspects of macroprudential policy relevant to the banking sector within the European Union.

This year’s guest speaker was Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank and Chair of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). Mr Draghi delivered a lecture on the process of economic convergence in Europe.

“For those EU members that have not yet adopted the euro, the challenge is to achieve a high degree of sustainable convergence with the euro area. This requires credible commitment on the part of their central banks to achieve price stability and treatment of exchange rate policies as a matter of common interest”, said Mr. Draghi.

In his speech, András Simor, Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, stressed that monetary policy can stimulate growth only as long as it is certain not to jeopardise price stability. Mr Simor added: ‘I hope that after so many dead ends and blind alleys, Hungarian economic policy will strengthen its commitment to macroeconomic stability. If fiscal policy is placed on predictable foundations, inflation targeting can be efficient in Hungary as well.’

The Governor also noted that today the primary problem facing the Hungarian economy is a lack of confidence. He said that if the lack of confidence could be overcome in the economy, fast and spectacular results would follow. The Governor concluded: ‘Stability, predictability and confidence: these are the best tools available to stimulate growth‘.

To access the materials from the Conference please click here.

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The primary objective of the MNB shall be to achieve and maintain price stability. (...) Without prejudice to its primary objective, the MNB shall support the maintenance of the stability of the system of financial intermediation, the enhancement of its resilience, its sustainable contribution to economic growth; furthermore, the MNB shall support the government’s economic policy and its policy related to environmental sustainability, using instruments at its disposal.