Session 21: Financial Turmoil in Eastern and Central European Countries
The Eastern and Central European economies have been severely hit by the financial crisis and the global recession. However, the situation differs among countries, depending on, inter alia, the degree of export dependence and the country-specific macroeconomic imbalances built up before the global crisis occurred. In this session, we will have opportunities to better understand the crisis' effects on two countries: The Czech Republic and Latvia. We will focus on economic development and how economic policy tools have been used in each country as well as the importance of the EU, the IMF, and other institutions to alleviate the financial crisis in the region.
Presentations
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Speakers
Cecilia Hermansson
Swedbank
Cecilia Hermansson is Chief Economist at Swedbank, and has been with the bank since 1999. Before that she held a position as director in Sweden's Ministry of Finance. She started her career after graduating from Stockholm School of Economics with international assignments, joining the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. She worked in Nairobi 1992-95 at the Swedish Embassy. In addition to the work at Swedbank, Cecilia Hermansson is currently doing research at the Centre for Banking and Finance, which is part of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Martins Kazaks
Swedbank, Latvia
Zdenek Tuma
Governor, Czech National Bank
Born on 19 October 1960 in Ceské Budejovice. Zdenek Tuma graduated from the Faculty of Trade at the University of Economics, Prague, and worked there after completing his studies. In 1986 he joined the Institute for Forecasting of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences as a postgraduate researcher. In 1993-1995 he was an adviser to the Minister of Industry and Trade, and from 1995 he was Chief Economist at Patria Finance. From 1 June 1998 until joining the CNB at the beginning of 1999 he held the post of Executive Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, representing the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia on the Board of Directors.
He was appointed Vice-Governor of the Czech National Bank on 13 February 1999 and Governor of the Czech National Bank on 1 December 2000. On 11 February 2005, he was reappointed by the President as Governor for another six-year term.
In 1990-1998, he lectured on macroeconomics at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. From 1999 to 2001 he held the post of President of the Czech Economics Society.
Between 2003 and 2006, he was a member of the Scientific Council at Charles University. He was elected a member of the Scientific Council of the Czech Technical University in Prague for the period from 1 February 2006 to 31 January 2010. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Economics in Prague, a member of the Graduation Council at the Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education (CERGE) at Charles University in Prague, a member of the Board of Governors of the English College in Prague, a member of the Board of Editors of Finance a úv?r (Czech Journal of Economics and Finance) and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jan and Meda Mládek Foundation. He was appointed a member of the Supervisory Board of the Economics Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, for the period from 1 May 2007 to 30 April 2012.
In the early 1990s, he studied in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the USA. He regularly publishes and speaks on monetary policy and macroeconomics at home and abroad.