Government brings back revamped economic advisory board
The Czech government has set up a revamped economic advisory board, or NERV. The board, which was first set up in 2009 to deal with the economic crisis, will now focus on areas such as public budgets, pension reform and anti-corruption measures, among others. Radio Prague spoke to economist Tomáš Sedláček, who was also on the previous board, about the shift in focus.
“Last year, the focus was on the crisis and on very quick fixes, so to speak. To put it in medical terms, it was liposuction last year, just getting rid of all the fat as soon as possible, but this time it will be more exercise and diet; it’s going to be more long-term, more systematic. The work and the logistics should also be more systematic. Last year, it was quick, sort of come and fix it; this time around we have more time at our disposal, there are more of us, and I’d like to involve students – like I did last time – I offered each of the experts two students to his aid, so I hope this will continue.”
Some critics say the government does not focus enough on economic growth, but rather on budget responsibility and cutting the deficit. What is your opinion on that? Are you going to pursue growth measures as well?
“I think this is in fact a quite general philosophical turn of the tide, so to speak. It was an imperative of the 1990s to max growth, which I think was healthy up to a certain point, but then it became at the expense of debt. Whatever we could do to max GDP, including indebting the country, we did it. So that has become a sort of a stimulant, an artificial drug for GDP growth. This was wrong, and we need to pay that back. So the focus is – and this is my opinion – rightly shifting towards budgetary and austerity measures, making our economy sound and balanced, not necessarily super-duper growth-oriented. I welcome this.”
“I cannot say but so far, from what I’ve read and from what I’ve heard in our debates today and in the past, I believe it will continue just as well as it did in the past. I did not feel that we had no say; we all felt we had quite a significant say, and we had the ear of the government and the prime minister. I think this will continue in a reasonable way. It should not be over-exercised, we are just an advisory board, we are not here to make decisions, but from the point of having an ear and the ability to persuade and maybe convince, I believe that’s quite strongly present.”
Last year, your final report was called ‘From Helsinki with Love’. One of the things you said was that it is healthy when the finance minister is not from the same party as the prime minister, which is usually the case in Finland. Now that’s also the case in the Czech Republic – will it be better for the economy?
