CENTRAL BANKS’ ACTIVITIES OF THE CEE COUNTRIES IN INTERNATIONAL RESERVES MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The article deals with the activities of central banks of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which are members of the European Union and which have their own monetary units in circulation, namely Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania, in the sphere of international reserves management. The topic is relevant, as a significant growth of the volume of international reserves in recent years has imposed central banks for cooperation in the field of competent international reserves management. Such management should take into account the features of the exchange rate policy of the country, look for an effective compromise between risk and profitability, and avoid market fluctuations. Much attention is paid to the clarity of roles, responsibilities and open process for reserve management market operations. The legislative acts on the basis of which the management of international reserves is carried out in the studied countries are outlined. The measures in achieving strategic goals for managing reserve assets in the CEE countries are identified, namely diversification of currencies and investment instruments, introduction of advanced methods of global asset allocation, simplification of the decision-making process and development of investment risk management methods. Conclusions regarding the directions of investing international reserves in the analyzed countries are made. The CEE countries invest their international reserves exclusively in highly reliable and liquid securities in a manner that does not threaten the reduction of the volume of reserve assets of the country. The statistical analysis is made for the volumes of international reserves and their growth rates in the CEE countries during the next time period – from the time of the countries’ accession to the EU (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic – beginning from 2004, Bulgaria, Romania since 2007) till today. The article also analyzes the fulfillment of the convergence criteria for the introduction of the euro in the studied CEE countries, namely the compatibility of the legislation, the price stability criterion, the fiscal criterion, the exchange rate criterion and the long-term interest rate criterion. Key words: international reserves; management of international reserves; volume of international reserves; convergence criteria.