Mugur Isărescu: Christine Lagarde’s visit to Romania Opening speech by Mr Mugur Isărescu, Governor of the National Bank of Romania, on the occasion of the IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde’s visit to Romania, Bucharest, 16 July 2013. *  *  *  Madame Christine Lagarde, Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen, Today I have the pleasure to welcome again here, at the National Bank of Romania Madame Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. It’s good to mention from the beginning that she is the first woman to ever lead the IMF. Timothy Geithner, the U.S. Treasury Secretary at the time, said upon her appointment, on July 5th, 2011: “Lagarde’s exceptional talent and broad experience will provide invaluable leadership for this institution at a critical time for the global economy.” Allow me to briefly introduce Madame Lagarde to you. She was born in Paris. Her father was an English professor. She spent her childhood in Le Havre and after graduating high school she went on a scholarship to Maryland, USA, attending Holton Arms School in Bethesda. Madame Lagarde got her law degree at University Paris X (dix), and holds a Master’s degree from the Political Science Institute in Aix-en-Provence. Already a member of the Paris Bar Association, Christine Lagarde joined the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie, becoming its Chairman of the Global Executive Committee in 1999. Subsequently, she acted as Chairman of the Global Strategic Committee in 2004.
Even though the current account surplus is increasing from 2003 to 2004 as a result of high oil prices, the adjusted basic balance is falling. In isolation, this is contributing to a decline in demand for the Norwegian krone. The decline is due to high import growth, which is reducing the current account surplus. In the Government’s budget proposal, the use of petroleum revenues remains virtually unchanged between 2004 and 2005. In spite of this, the krone exchange rate has appreciated recently. This reflects short-term capital inflows and may indicate that foreign exchange market operators expect that the use of petroleum revenues will increase in the years ahead. A levelling off or a fall in oil prices and a stable use of petroleum revenues could reverse these short-term capital flows. Inflation has been low this year. Consumer price inflation adjusted for tax changes and excluding energy products (CPI-ATE) was very low up to the end of the summer, but moved up slightly in September. Inflation is still being curbed by the fall in prices for imported consumer goods, in spite of the depreciation of the krone through 2003 and the global rise in producer and commodity prices. This is partly due to the increasing share of Norwegian imports from low-cost countries. Strong competition and high productivity growth in many industries in Norway have also exerted downward pressure on inflation.