Final Word from Thursday, November 22, 2012
In Proust's "Swann's Way," the narrator says his aunt didn't ask to live to be 100, because she preferred not to have a limit fixed to the number of her days. CNB Gov. Miroslav Singer is like this with the rate of the crown. He wants to see the currency depreciate, but he declines to put a fixed limit to it. He told E15 that the rate is almost an inexhaustible instrument, because it can be pushed lower and lower. The crown has dropped to Kč 25.40/euro since Singer started talking it down, but the CNB's own forecast from Nov. 1 calls for a rate of Kč 25.1 next year and Kč 25.2 in 2014. The finance ministry even bases its latest 2013 draft budget on a stronger rate - Kč 24.9. Sin-ger prides himself on being predictable. He might surprise us, but for now we should probably look at his current verbal intervention in a Proustian sort of way and consider it more symbolic than indicative of a true effort to weaken the crown further.[Czech Republic Marcel Czech National Bank]
Glossary of difficult words
inexhaustible - (of an amount or supply of something) unable to be used up because of existing in abundance;
to talk something down - to make statements that cause the value of a commodity to decrease; to speak about someone or something in a way that makes the subject less interesting or attractive;
Proustian - Proust's characters were passive and did not engage in much action.