Ruecker: "BPK will not become Central Bank of Kosovo"

Prishtina, August 4, 2005 – The statement of Deputy Prime Minister, Adem Salihaj, given two months ago, that BPK will be transformed into a Central Bank seems to be groundless.

The head of Pillar IV, Joachim Ruecker, says that BPK will not be denominated Central Bank. He further claims that discussions on potential changes in the BPK – including a Kosovarization – are happening and will be finalized soon. These changes will mainly imply a greater role of the local staff of BPK.

“I would not call it a transfer of competencies either, since BPK will continue to be a reserved competence of SRSG”, says one Government official.

On the other hand, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Haki Shatri says, “BPK will assume additional tasks, like monetary policy and bank control, but not emission of money”.

He further states that essential changes will take place in the composition of the BPK board with more local officials present in this board.

ECIKS