Joint statement by the the Czech National Bank, Magyar Nemzeti Bank, Narodowy Bank Polski, and Národná banka Slovenska

On human capital

Europe is looking for capital. One of its scarcest forms is already here: our people.

With ageing populations and artificial intelligence reshaping skills, our prosperity will depend less on adding workers than on creating more value with the people we have.

That matters to central banks: human capital shapes potential growth, and with it the conditions in which monetary policy works.

Our monetary arrangements differ; the challenge does not. Europe must do three things at once: develop more talent, keep the talent it has from depreciating, and circulate knowledge without permanently draining the places that produced it.

Within our mandates, we will share research on skills and open staff exchanges between our central banks, built so that knowledge returns home.
The economies that succeed will not be those with the most talent, but those that waste the least of it.