Presenters
Ľudovít Ódor, Deputy Governor of the Slovak National Bank
Tomáš Holub, Board Member of the Czech National Bank

Growing and stubbornly high inflation rates have surprised central banks all over the world. The initially widespread view among policymakers, that price increases are caused by mainly pandemic-related supply shocks and are therefore transitory, started to change following the emergence of demand pressures and the dramatic global rise of energy prices. The war in Ukraine further elevated the economic uncertainty and burdened government spending further to protect the most vulnerable. 

Two distinguished senior policymakers from the Czech National Bank and the Slovak National Bank will identify the main determinants of inflation in their countries. They will discuss the differences in the main sources of current price pressures that are specific to the monetary policy regime operated in the two countries (within or outside the euro area). More specifically, they will elaborate on the:

• main driving forces behind high inflation rates, including the
• contribution of the economic cycle, exchange rate and commodity prices to inflation
• role of fiscal policy in demand-led inflation pressures
• role of the exchange rate channel in stabilizing inflation pressures in the near future
• monetary policy reactions up to now, expectations about future policy steps
• impact of the current period of high inflation on the credibility of central banks.