Rozhovor s Alešem Michlem, guvernérem ČNB
Raphael Minder (Financial Times 21. 7. 2026)
Guvernér ČNB Aleš Michl v rozhovoru pro Financial Times říká, že Česká národní banka musí zůstat nezávislá vůči dvěma politickým tlakům: volání po nižších úrokových sazbách a výzvám k rychlému přijetí eura. Současnou debatu označuje za střet špatně načasovaných myšlenek – snížení sazeb nyní není možné, protože by ohrozilo cenovou stabilitu, zatímco předčasné přijetí eura by oslabilo schopnost Česka tlumit domácí inflační tlaky vlastní měnovou politikou.
Plné znění rozhovoru (v angličtině)
The Czech Republic’s central bank governor has said that the country’s prime minister and president are pushing “mistimed” economic ideas, as he resisted calls for lower interest rates and warned against prematurely joining the Eurozone.
In an interview with the FT, Aleš Michl said Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s recent calls to cut interest rates were at odds with the central bank’s efforts to tame inflation, while he was also critical of President Petr Pavel’s drive to adopt the euro.
A billionaire businessman who has frequently expressed admiration for US President Donald Trump, Babiš has become a “catch-all prime minister who follows a Trump-style idea: the cheaper the money, the better”, Michl said. Trump has consistently demanded that the US Federal Reserve lower interest rates.
Yielding to Babiš’s own pressure would jeopardise price stability in the Czech Republic, Michl said.
But he was equally critical of Pavel’s euro campaign, warning that the economy had yet to converge sufficiently with other Eurozone countries to make adopting the single currency advisable, despite significant progress since the Czech Republic joined the EU in 2004.
A premature move, he argued, could fuel inflation by pushing up wages and other costs.
Michl said the Czech National Bank (CNB) needed to remain “independent of both sides” in what he described as a “battle of mistimed ideas” between Babiš and Pavel about the country’s economic future.
The economy is an area of focus in an intensifying power struggle between the pro-EU Pavel and the Eurosceptic Babiš. Pavel defeated Babiš in an acrimonious presidential run-off in 2023, but the latter returned to power last December at the helm of a coalition government after his ANO party won parliamentary elections.
The CNB last month raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in four years, by a quarter point to 3.75 per cent, to counter wage growth and broader inflationary pressures.
While headline inflation has been running close to the central bank’s 2 per cent target for two years, the CNB warned in June that core inflation, which strips out volatile energy and food prices, has “remained elevated” at just below 3 per cent “without showing a downward tendency”.
Michl acknowledged in the interview that it was “an irony” that he was now at odds with Babiš over monetary policy, having previously served as his economic adviser when Babiš was finance minister.
Pavel has defended the independence of the central bank and other institutions, but has stopped short of publicly rebutting Babiš for demanding lower rates.
But Michl said that Pavel’s euro push – another area of contention between the president and prime minister – had recently generated “no constructive debate, only political noise”. Babiš opposes adopting the euro.
Pavel has argued that Czech export-oriented companies already operate largely within the Eurozone but without Prague having any influence over European Central Bank policy.
“The very fact that our economy is significantly interconnected with the Eurozone should lead us to conclude that it is clearly better to be at the table where decisions are made than to sit outside the door and then have to deal with those decisions afterwards,” Pavel told a conference in June.
While the president can advocate to join the Eurozone, the decision would be in the hands of the government, which would also likely need support from parliament to enact legislation to switch currency.
All EU countries, except Denmark, are required to join the Eurozone, but there is no fixed timeline. Instead, member states that are yet to adopt the euro have to fulfil a number of conditions, including keeping inflation and public spending in check, maintaining a stable exchange rate with the single currency and ensuring the independence of their central bank.
Bulgaria adopted the euro in January, while Hungary’s Prime Minister Péter Magyar has pledged to take his country into the Eurozone by 2030. But even if more central and eastern European countries join, Michl argued that this should not pressure his country to abandon its own currency. “I like flexible exchange rates, and the appreciation of the [Czech] koruna is a tool for fighting against inflation,” he said.