A meeting of the Higher Expert Council set up at the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine took place on 23 February 2017. The meeting addressed the situation in the money market and the banking system, discussed the impact of the NBU and the Government on its development, and worked out proposals on ways to improve it.
At the beginning of the meeting, Mr Bohdan Danylyshyn briefed the attendees about the work carried out to implement the statutory mandate of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Council). “Over less than three month, the Council has successfully accomplished almost all the tasks set out in the annual plan and strengthened its institutional capacity. The next issue on the agenda is to assess the performance of the NBU Board in 2016. The Council is currently in the process of making preparations for this important meeting. We believe that last year the NBU met its main monetary policy target by bringing headline inflation down to 12.4% y-o-y, with the inflation target set at 12±3%. This success bolstered our confidence in the NBU’s ability to gradually restore price stability and fulfil its main statutory function. Therefore, I ask everyone to focus their speeches on economic recovery and the role of the NBU in promoting economic growth. This meaningful dialogue will help us get a clear picture of the current situation and work out detailed recommendations to the NBU and the Government, said Mr Danylyshyn.
NBU Deputy Governor Mr Dmytro Sologub outlined the NBU Board’s for the situation in the money market and the banking system in 2016.
In his speech, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko emphasized the need to redress the existing macroeconomic imbalances stemming from the high level of shadow economy and highlighted the role of the NBU and the Government in de-shadowing the economy and addressing imbalances. Mr Yushchenko said that economic relations should be brought out of shadow, which would help release substantial resources and channel resources toward supporting economic growth improving the welfare of Ukrainians.
Director of the NAS Institute for Economics and Forecasting Mr Valeriy Heyets focused his speech on the current challenges and threats to economic recovery and ways to address them. Mr Heyets underlined the need to ensure not only high growth rate but also the quality of economic growth.
The meeting was attended by Chairman of the Council Mr Danylyshyn, former Ukrainian President Mr Yushchenko, former Prime Minister Mr Yekhanurov, former Governors of the NBU Mr Stelmakh and Mr Tigibko, Director of the NAS Institute for Economics and Forecasting Mr Heyets, NBU Deputy Governor Mr Sologub, NBU Council members Mr Furman and Ms Shcherbakova, heads of banking associations Mr Shpek, Mr Arzhevitin and Mr Kolesnyk, representatives of the the NSDCU, well-known representatives of academia, expert and business communities. The proposals and recommendations worked out at the meeting of the Higher Expert Council will be used in the preparation of the Council decisions on the assessment of the NBU Board performance in 2016.