Kateřina Šmídková dies

Kateřina Šmídková, Executive Director of Economic Research at the Czech National Bank and Professor of Economics at Charles University, has died at the age of 46 years after a long illness. The Czech National Bank has lost an exceptional colleague, a highly capable manager and a leading monetary economics expert of great international repute.

“I knew Kateřina long before I joined the Czech National Bank. Although not well known by the general public, she and her work were known and respected by her colleagues in the field at central banks and by monetary policy specialists. That, I am sure, is just the way she would have wanted it. My colleagues and I at the bank always valued the quality of her work both as an economist and as a manager. In a very short space of time she succeeded in advancing the Czech National Bank’s research to the very highest level among central banks of comparably large countries by any international measure. There will be many of us who will miss both Kateřina personally and her ideas and passion for economic research,” said CNB Governor Miroslav Singer.

Kateřina Šmídková joined the CNB in 1994. She successively held the posts of head of macroeconomic modelling and adviser to the Bank Board of the Czech National Bank before being appointed Executive Director of the Economic Research Department in 2004.