Global Finance ranks Czech National Bank Governor Zdeněk Tůma among seven best central bankers in the world

Global Finance magazine has ranked Czech National Bank Governor Zdeněk Tůma among the world’s seven best central bankers over the past year. This year the “Central Banker Report Card”, published by Global Finance annually since 1994, put special emphasis on each central banker's performance in navigating his or her country through the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

Governor Tůma made the following comments: “It is undoubtedly pleasing to see that our work has received recognition abroad, but I must add that the foundations of a central bank’s good performance are laid over a longer period.I therefore regard this as recognition not only of the most visible person, i.e. the governor, but also the other members of the Bank Board – past and present – as well as all CNB employees.”

Central bankers of 30 key countries of the world are graded on an “A” to “F” scale for success in areas such as inflation, economic growth, currency stability and interest rate management.

Global Finance added the following assessment of Governor Tůma: “Unlike many of his counterparts, though, Tuma did respond to the imminent economic slowdown and began trimming interest rates in August last year…Tuma’s decisiveness and willingness to make sharp, repeated cuts to interest rates almost certainly helped reduce the impact of the global slowdown on the Czech Republic.”

In addition to Governor Tůma, the following central bankers scored an "A": Jean-Claude Trichet (ECB), Glenn Stevens (Reserve Bank of Australia), Zeti Akhtar Aziz (Central Bank of Malaysia), Lee Seongtae (Bank of Korea), Fai-Nan Perng (Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan)) and Stanley Fischer (Bank of Israel).

Marek Petruš
CNB spokesman