Deepening Bilateral Cooperation in the Field of Economic Research with the National Bank of Austria

The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) was visited by a delegation from the National Bank of Austria (Oesterreiche Nationalbank, OeNB), which deepened the long-standing cooperation between the analytical departments of the central banks. The Chief Economist of the OeNB, Birgit Niessner, presented the details of the revision of the monetary policy strategy of the European Central Bank (ECB), which was published at the end of last week  (https://www.ecb.europa.eu/mopo/strategy/strategy-review/ecb.strategyreview202506_strategy_overview.en.html). 

As one of the representatives in the ECB working group that participated in the development of the strategy, she shared with the CBBH staff the current and expected macroeconomic trends and views on future global and euro area risks, on which basis the current revision of the ECB strategy was developed. For a central bank operating under a currency board arrangement, such as the CBBH, a thorough understanding of the desired monetary policy objectives of the central bank’s anchor currency, the tools available to achieve them, and the current narratives, is important not only from the perspective of calibrating domestic monetary policy, but also the CBBH’s investment policy. Finally, this interaction between central banks also helped us to better understand the mechanism of the ECB’s monetary policy strategy development, which is also important from the perspective of the country’s European integration.

In addition to the Chief Economist, the OeNB delegation also included Julia Wörz, Director of the Central and South-Eastern Europe Department, and Elisabeth Beckmann, Chief Analyst for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Survey Expert in the same department. In addition to the new ECB strategy, the expected macroeconomic effects of the new Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, measures and main drivers of inflation, the performance of the currency board, the domestic labor market, competitiveness, remittances, and the stability of the financial system were discussed.

The meetings between central bank staff, hosted on the CBBH side by the Office of the Chief Economist, were interactive, comparing the macroeconomic and expert assessments of the CBBH staff with the current views of the OeNB and the findings of the OeNB survey conducted among the countries of Central and Southeastern Europe  (https://www.oenb.at/en/Publications/Economics/reports/2024/report-2024-12-euro-survey/html-version.html), including BH.

The CBBH thanks the OeNB for the support provided, and looks forward to the planned more intensive cooperation between our institutions.