OREANDA-NEWS. On September 29, 2008, member of the European Commission responsible for economic and monetary affairs Joaquin Almunia has visited the Bank of Lithuania. He had a meeting with the Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania Reinoldijus Sarkinas and Deputy Chairperson Ramune Zabuliene, reported the press-centre of Bank of Lithuania.

Mr Joaquin Almunia was informed about economic and price developments in Lithuania and the situation of the system of banks operating in Lithuania. Supervision of credit institutions was also discussed.

The Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania stressed that the commercial banks operating in Lithuania have not been hit by the crises of investment banks in the US so far.

Mr Reinoldijus Sarkinas affirmed that the banks in our country were prepared for the slowdown of the economic growth which has recently been observed, and expressed an opinion that the slowdown would be moderate.

Mr Reinoldijus Sarkinas marked that the developments in the financial markets during the recent year prompted to turn special attention towards management of bank risk and credit risk in particular - as well as organisation of the internal control system. Therefore, banks and credit unions were advised to revise and evaluate more critically the risk management processes.

When speaking about prospects of price developments, Mr Reinoldijus Sarkinas made an assumption that, with the favourable turn in circumstances, average annual inflation in Lithuania should not exceed 10 per cent. In the opinion of the head of the Bank of Lithuania, under favourable conditions, Lithuania might achieve compliance with the required level of inflation set by the Maastricht criteria after two years.

It is non the first visit of the member of the European Commission responsible for the economic and monetary affairs Joaquin Almunia to the Bank of Lithuania - he visited the Bank in 2005 and 2006.