Could the central bank's historical record net loss for 2022, in the context of its monetary policy and speculative transactions in international financial markets, mean a decrease in security in the banking system?
The main purpose of a central bank's activities is to take care of the value of money, its stability against other currencies and the security of the banking system. However, since the 1970s, since the period of the rise of monetarism developed in accordance with Milton Fredman's concept of monetarism, the increase in the scale of economic globalisation, the transition of international monetary systems from the USD-based system, the system established after the Second World War in Bretton Woods to a system of free market exchange rates, the abandonment in the USA of gold parity with the USD currency, the growth of multinational corporations, the increased importance of speculative financial transactions carried out on foreign capital markets, including securities markets, etc. Central banks are also involved in the processes of stabilising the economy as part of anti-crisis programmes and protecting national labour markets, with the aim of limiting the scale of the increase in unemployment. In some countries, these new, additional central bank functions are added to the legal regulations shaping the functioning of the central bank. In some countries, the issue of linking the central bank's monetary policy is implemented informally.
For years, the central bank in Poland has also been conducting speculative transactions on international financial markets using various currencies and securities. For many previous years, the bank generated a net profit of PLN 9-10 billion of which 95 per cent of this profit was transferred to the state budget by the politically connected central bank to the government, instead of feeding the central bank's reserves and increasing the security of the financial system. For 2021, the central bank in Poland, i.e. the National Bank of Poland, generated as much as PLN 11 billion in net profit thanks to speculative transactions on the international financial markets, almost all of which went to the state budget rather than to central bank reserves, as usual. The annual profit generated by the central bank in Poland until 2021 was a consequence of, among other things, the monetary policy pursued by the bank, which consisted in successive depreciation of the domestic currency PLN against other currencies. However, for 2022, the National Bank of Poland unexpectedly raked in a historically record loss of PLN 17 billion. Could it be that the speculative transactions carried out in 2022 on the international financial markets turned out to be wrong this time? In addition, another key question arises: to what extent will this kind of situation result in a decrease in the level of security of the entire banking system?
In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:
Could the historically record net loss of the central bank for 2022, in the context of the monetary policy pursued and the speculative transactions carried out on the international financial markets, mean a decrease in security in the banking system?
And what is your opinion on this?
What is your opinion on this subject?
Please respond,
I invite you all to discuss,
Thank you very much,
Best wishes,
Dariusz Prokopowicz