Banks, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Latvia

"The greatest satisfaction and joy is that the Bank of Latvia's reputation in society has regenerated very rapidly - if a year ago, from time to time, there was a feeling that the Bank of Latvia was being avoided due to its reputation, then at the moment the demand is so high that we can't to meet, for example, the economic analysis side of our activities," said Kazaks.

He noted that the Bank of Latvia plans to increase its capacity on the economic analysis side. "Therefore, one of the things we will grow is our economic analysis capacity, so that we can help the government and the Saeima with analysis for decision-making," Kazaks said.

He also noted that the Latvian economy has proven to be sufficiently resilient, including the fact that Latvia has overcome the Covid-19 crisis much better than other European countries on average.

"We see that, unfortunately, one wave was not enough - there is a second wave and there is a very high risk that another wave will follow. So there is no dilemma, either public health or the economy, if there is no health, there will be no economy," he said. The Governor of the Bank of Latvia called for compliance with the safety measures currently in place to reduce the spread of Covid-19 so that more painful measures for the economy do not have to be introduced.

Kazaks also emphasized that support for the economy must be timely, broad enough, sufficient and targeted. "We cannot afford to lose any resident, we cannot afford to risk an increase in poverty, we cannot afford to risk an increase in inequality, because it will affect us all in the future. (..) We try to support with a fishing rod where possible, not with fish," said Kazaks.