Appointment of two division directors in the CNB's Monetary and Statistics Department

At its meeting today the Bank Board of the Czech National Bank appointed Michal Skořepa, Ph.D. to the post of Director of the Monetary Policy and Strategy Division of the CNB's Monetary and Statistics Department as of 16 September 2004 and Jiří Podpiera, MA to the post of Director of the External Economic Relations Division of the CNB's Monetary and Statistics Department as of 1 November 2004.

Mr Podpiera will replace Mr Stanislav Polák, who from 1 November 2004 will represent the interests of the Czech Republic at the International Monetary Fund in Washington. Mr Skořepa is replacing Mr Viktor Kotlán, who is leaving the CNB for the private sector after the mandatory two-month break from work.

Michal Skořepa has a Ph.D. in economic theory from the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague. His thesis focused on consumer behaviour in conditions of a lack of information about market prices. He attended a summer school on behavioural economy at Stanford University and has completed short-term research fellowships at the universities of York, Manchester and Constance. Mr Skořepa has worked at the CNB since 2000, specialising in monetary policy strategy under inflation targeting and also in communication of monetary policy topics to the public. He publishes articles in the professional and daily press and lectures on the theory of decision-making at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague.

Jiří Podpiera graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Administration at Masaryk University in Brno and from CERGE-EI at Charles University in Prague. He has completed short-term study programmes at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and South Stockholm University. Mr Podpiera lectures on international trade and finance at the University of New York in Prague. He gave introductory courses on economics at the Anglo-American College and worked as an assistant professor at CERGE-EI in the area of advanced econometrics. He has worked in the CNB's Monetary and Statistics Department since 2002. His research work focuses on the evaluation of exchange rate disparity and structural economic changes in relation to financial stability and monetary policy.