Analysis of the Maastricht criteria, Czech republic since 1998

The convergent criteria and its implementation across countries is a very actual and discussed issue of the past few years with regard to the increasing number of countries striving for joining the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It has also become a part of the policies of the particular central banks having a significant impact on its performance. The beginning of this work is intent on the theory of the Optimal Currency Area (OCA) as developed by Robert A. Mundell in the sixties, which gave rise to the Maastricht criteria, subsequently the findings will be applied to the environment of the Czech Republic. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the evolution of the monetary policy of the Czech Republic with regard to the fact that the Czech Republic also commited itself to adopting the common European currency. And what about the impact of a fact, that the Czech Republic represents a small open economy strongly reliant on the development of Euro, especially the German economy? Furthermore I will also evaluate the policy of the central bank which must be performed in order to meet the determined Maastricht criteria. One of the other aims of this thesis is to assess the benefits and risks associated with the entry to the monetary union, such as depreciation of Czech National Bank (CNB), primarily the loss of using the exchange rates representing the important means to stabilize the economy.