Robert Holzmann: Economic and monetary policy under wartime conditions - implications for CESEE

Welcome remarks by Dr Robert Holzmann, Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, the Austrian central bank, at the Conference on European Economic Integration (CEEI) 2022, Vienna, 21 November 2022.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Central bank speech  | 
23 November 2022

Dear participants, ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, I would like to welcome you warmly to this
year's Conference on European Economic Integration. It is a great pleasure to see so many familiar
faces. Allow me to extend a special welcome to:

  • Our first keynote speaker, Professor Graciela Kaminsky, who is Professor of Economics and International Affairs in the Department of Economics and Elliott School of International Affairs of George Washington University,
  • As well as to my esteemed central bank colleagues
  • Deputy Governor Leonardo Badea from Romania,
  • First Deputy Governor Marta Kightley from Poland,
  • Governor Gent Sejko from Albania; and
  • Chairman of the Board Gediminas Šimkus from Lithuania.

At this year's conference, we are going to discuss a topic that has been foremost on our minds for the past nine months: "Economic and monetary policy under wartime conditions." Since February 24 of this year, we have been witnessing something that used to be unimaginable over the past decades: outright war in Europe. Apart from being a crime, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is causing a human tragedy. We therefore deplore the many thousands of innocent victims of this cruel bloodshed. Yet, war also has an economic dimension; and this is what we are going to focus on today and tomorrow. We will be paying special attention to the implications of the war for Ukraine's neighbors in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, or CESEE for short – on top of the pandemic and the climate crisis.