Petar Goshev: Central banking in Macedonia – a brief review of the first 60 years Welcome speech by Mr Petar Goshev, Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, at the opening ceremony of the 60th anniversary of central banking in the Republic of Macedonia, Skopje, 20 October 2006. *  *  *  Honorable President of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Branko Crvenkovski, Honorable President of the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Ljubisha Georgievski, Honorable President of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Nikola Gruevski, Honorable former President of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Kiro Gligorov, Honorable Ministers former and present, Distinguished representatives of the judicial, public and cultural institutions of the Republic of Macedonia, Your Excellencies, Distinguished leaders of religious communities' Honorable Mayor of the City of Skopje, Dear colleagues, leaders of the banking and business community, Dear friends from other countries, colleagues governors, representatives of central banks and other international financial institutions, present here tonight from four continents, dear Malcolm Knight, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish you all the warmest welcome to this event, that is so important to all of us! On October 19, 1946, on the basis of a "Decree for merging of public sector credit enterprises", of the federal state of that time, and a Decision of the Macedonian authorities of that time, "Makedonska Stopanska Banka" merged with the National Bank of the former Federal Yugoslavia.
Large shares of the sizeable revenues from the petroleum sector over the past 20 years have been transferred to the oil fund. Norway’s sound public finances have been a great advantage to the economy, particularly through the financial crisis. But the management of the government’s large petroleum revenues through our 40 year-long oil history has not always been equally well planned. In the mid-1970s, the budget deficit – including petroleum revenues – reached a high level. And we could not know then that oil prices would more than double a few years later – with the second oil shock in 1979, known as OPEC II. But we learned from our mistakes. The oil fund mechanism in 1990 and the fiscal rule in 2001 were introduced to discipline fiscal policy in such a way that Norway’s petroleum wealth would also benefit future generations. Oil fund assets are now equivalent to more than twice the GDP of Norway’s mainland economy, and the oil fund, or the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), is today one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. The GPFG represents the nation’s savings, to be managed for the benefit of both current and future generations. As an investor, the GPFG makes capital available to other countries for economic activity, and the return on that capital will depend on the economic performance of those countries. The GPFG is a long-term, responsible investor. The objective of investment management is to achieve the highest possible return at an acceptable level of risk.