V skratke:
Three central bankers from CEE region gathered to discuss „pros and cons“ of common European currency. While governor of the Czech National Bank Zdeněk Tůma argued that it is not clear whether euro lead to „real convergency“ on the European level, his Slovak and Austrian counterparts highlighted the benefits of eurozone accession for their countries. The conference was organized by Europeum Institute for European Policy and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
According to Central Bank Policy Governor of „Oesterreichische Nationalbank“ Ewald Nowotny the Austrians were mostly against the euro adoption but they then changed their minds: 66% of them support it nowadays. „There is many things in life that you have to experience first before you judge them,“ he says.
Former Executive Director of „Národná banka Slovenska“ Ivan Šramko believes that it is very difficult to „abstract the impacts of euro adoption away from global crisis“. „Nevertheless, there is few things related to euro we can already note,“ Šramko argues. He highlights that transaction costs decreased, capital got cheaper, exchange rate risk was diminished and Slovakia became even more attractive for FDI.
According to the governor of „Česká národní banka“ Zdeněk Tůma „we should look at those expectations which were not met and at those which were“. „In case of price stability, „mission was completed“. But still, there are doubts whether real convergency was achieved or not,“ he explains. Tůma believes that „one could observe very limited or no impact of euro on the level of GDP“.