Page 18 - Ekonomija i Biznis_May 2016.indd
P. 18
MEGA INTERVIEW
the documents are in order and whether Let us turn now to some more fun-
there are legal grounds to make pay- damental topics. Beside price stability,
ment abroad. If a transaction is in or- citizens are generally very interested in
der in terms of the regulations, but it the Governor’s position on two other is-
is questionable in terms of money laun- sues: whether the exchange rate of the
dering or terrorist financing, based on denar against the euro will remain sta-
predetermined criteria, they report it ble and whether the banking system in
to the Financial Intelligence Agency. the country is secure and stable, which
At least once a year, the National Bank means that deposits placed in the banks
controls each commercial bank regard- are safe. What is your position on these
ing its compliance with the regulations. two issues?
It checks whether banks adhere to the
regulations governing foreign exchange D. Bogov: The stable exchange rate
operations and whether they have set a against the euro has served the Macedo-
good system to prevent money launder- nian economy well for 19 years and there
ing and terrorist financing. According to is no reason to change it. After all, both
the latest findings banks generally com- theory and practice have shown that a
ply with the legislation in the area of small open economy cannot conduct a
foreign exchange operations and invest fully independent monetary policy and it
in the continuous improvement of their is good to import the stability of a large
systems for prevention of money laun- currency area. The most obvious exam-
dering and financing of terrorism. ple is that of the three Baltic economies,
which despite the crisis faced by the euro
The National Bank announced the zone did what was needed to replace
introduction of new banknotes in de- their national currency with the euro, as
nominations of 200 and 2000 denars. soon as possible. Therefore, we continue
We have witnessed, I would say, irre- with the current policy of a stable denar
sponsible speculations that it could exchange rate. Stability and reliability of
mean that inflation is on the horizon. the banking sector have not been put in
What is your comment? question at all, although there are con-
stant challenges. Hence, my message to
D. Bogov: NBRM started activities all citizens is - save money in a bank,
for introducing new banknotes of 200 save money in denars.
and 2000 denars three years ago. First,
the need for new denominations was One of the issues which has been
determined, then the design was se- emphasized in recent years is the coor-
lected and a tender for printing was dination between the institutions that
announced, so by the end of the year are supervisors and regulators in the fi-
we should complete the entire process. nancial system of the Republic of Mace-
The 200 denar banknote should reduce donia. Here I refer to institutions such
the burden from the use of the 100 de- as the NBRM, the Ministry of Finance,
nar banknote, while the 2000 denar the Securities and Exchange Commis-
banknote should replace the banknote sion, the Insurance Supervision Agency,
of 5000 denars which has never been MAPAS, etc. How do you assess the coop-
extensively used in practice and reduce eration and coordination?
the burden from the excessive use of
the 1000 denar banknote in the ATMs. D. Bogov: After the massive world fi-
The new banknotes have nothing to do nancial crisis in 2008 the issue of finan-
with inflation. Actually, it is ridiculous cial stability became a frontrunner. In
to sound an alarm about inflation when this regard, in 2009, a Financial Stabil-
we have had negative inflation for two ity Committee was established which is
years in a row, same as in the first three comprised of the Governor and the Min-
months of this year. ister of Finance, each of them with five
associates. This Committee meets peri-
18 May 2016
