We are also working to improve the Fund’s website, which will include a continuous update of the Fund’s value. Conclusion Transparency is important. Transparency contributes to strengthening confidence, and confidence is crucial for an effective monetary policy – in normal times, but perhaps particularly in times of crisis. According to Lars Weisæth and Ragnar Kjeserud, two authorities in the field of crisis psychiatry, to be successful in managing a crisis, the responsible authorities must be perceived as competent and at the same time have a reputation for openness and honesty. 55 I started this lecture by describing how the Bank of England managed the crisis during the 1780 Gordon riots. A military defence was necessary to safeguard society’s values. The event gave rise to the expression “as safe as the Bank of England” and later “as safe as the bank”. We have experienced a deep financial crisis. We are now hopeful that it is coming to an end. The reputation of private banks has not been left untarnished. Banks’ own behaviour was one of the causes of the crisis. The very depth of the banking crisis is attributable to a collapse of trust among banks. They no longer considered their fellow banks as “safe”. Financial markets stopped functioning. The expression “as safe as the bank” became somewhat hollowed. We have seen that the most unexpected places, such as small coastal towns and the northern region of Norway, have been hard-hit by the financial crisis. The crisis has also left its mark on our language.
The cure in such cases is to achieve primary surpluses in the future, and this can be done in two ways: cutting fixed expenditures or raising taxes. We know, even from our own experience in the 1990s, that this process is painful. On the other hand, there is real danger of conflict between the objectives and directions of the fiscal and monetary policies. Tightened monetary conditions and loosened fiscal conditions have contrary macroeconomic effects, at least on demand. To this we could add the significantly delayed structural reforms which could have supported the resolution of supply-related problems, but have not yet been brought into the focus of the budgeting debate. The combination of these two factors would seriously hinder the endeavours to limit and keep inflation down; and what is more, it would create conditions for return to the macroeconomic imbalances of the recent past. Such a development, inter alia, would have a strongly deleterious effect on the businesses and banks in Bulgaria. Therefore, in terms of greater predictability of the macroeconomic environment dynamics, now one of the major economic policy tasks is to try to synchronise as much as possible the monetary and fiscal conditions in Bulgaria. In the language of  2/5  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  budgeting, this means accomplishing fiscal consolidation that can be measured by a concrete number: a budget deficit not higher than 3% of GDP.