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Mr. Adam Elhiraika, Director, Macroeconomic Policy Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, (UNECA) and Dr. Hanan Morsy, Director of Macroeconomic Policy, Forecasting and Research, African Development Bank, having a portrait during African Economic Conference (AEC) 2019 - Session 1 - Press Conference on December 02, 2019, at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The Becker Friedman Institute hosted a conference in honor of Robert E. Lucas Jr. Oct. 7-8, 2016, followed by a dinner where he received the prestigious Phoenix Prize from the University of Chicago DIvision of Social Sciences.
Session 3: Infrastructure Investment, Fiscal Space, and Growth: Does Asia Need More Official Financing for Investment?
With international financial conditions becoming less accommodative, and activity in some critical parts of Asia moving to a lower equilibrium, economic growth is likely to settle below the high rates of the past decade. Addressing these challenges will require a recalibration of macroeconomic policies, efforts to reduce vulnerabilities, and deeper structural reforms. Key issues include upgrading investment in infrastructure, public investment and maintaining fiscal space, improving educational outcomes and other steps to spur productivity.
Moderator:
Shereen Bhan, CNBC India
Panelists:
Jayant Sinha, Minister of State (Finance), India
Masatsugu Asakawa, Vice Minister of Finance for Foreign Affairs, Japan
Vitor Gaspar, Director, IMF Fiscal Affairs Department
Bambang Brodjonegoro, Minister of Finance, Indonesia
Rakesh Mohan, former Chairman, National Transport Development Committee, India
(L-R) Nippon Life Professor of Finance and Economics at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Franklin Allen, Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Randall S. Kroszner, IMF Economic Cousellor and Director of the Research Department Olivier Blanchard, Vice Chairman and Director of Macroeconomics Advisers Laurence Meyer, and Nippon Life Professor of Finance and Economics at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvanioa Franklin Allen during the 2009 IMF Economic Forum at the Tenth Annual Jacques Polak Research Conference at the IMF headquarters November 6, 2009 in Washington, DC. This year's IMF Economic Forum turns its attention to what are the macro-financial policies to follow after the crisis. International Monetary Fund Photograph/Eugene Salazar
Argentine economic crisis (1999–2002)
Wikipedia:
The Argentine economic crisis was a financial situation that affected Ceng and Argentina's economy during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Macro-economically speaking, the critical period started with the decrease of real GDP in 1999 and ended in 2002 with the return to GDP growth, but the origins of the collapse of Argentina's economy, and their effects on the population, can be found in action before.
More info here...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_economic_crisis_%281999%E...
List of Country's GDP...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_...
Banco De La Provincia De Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires Argentina
The IGM Annual Conference 2021, held on 24 November 2021 in a hybrid mode in Maputo, Mozambique, gathered local and international academics and development practitioners to present and discuss recent research on the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mozambique and their policy implications.
The conference was structured around three thematic sessions with topics ranging from macroeconomic and labour market impacts of COVID-19 to the impact of the pandemic on the economic development in urban areas of the country. The event culminates with a panel discussion on the policy implications of the research presented.
Group picture of Karunakaran Ramchand, Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure, Infrastructure Leasing & Fin; James Sanpha Koroma, CEO, Managing Director, Director at Union Trust Bank Ltd; S. Kuppuswamy, Director, Shapoorji Pallonji Group; Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Finance; Motena Tsolo, Public Financial Management and Macro-economic Policy, Lesotho and R.K. Gupta, Chairman, Managing Director, WAPCOS Limited during the AfDB's Annual Meetings 2017 - Africa-India Cooperation Session 2: The Infrastructure Imperative on May 22, 2017, at Mahatma Mandir Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre in Ahmedabad, India.
2022-12-10: Ms. Eunice Kamwendo, Director, Sub-regional Officer for Southern Africa, UNECA sharing a stage with (L-R), Mary L. Mbithi, Director of Research at the Women’s Economic Empowerment Hub (WEE Hub); Dr. Joy Kategekwa, Strategy Advisor, Regional Bureau for Africa, UNDP; Dr. Joseph Atta-Mensah, Principal Economic Affairs Officer Macroeconomic and Governance Division, UNECAduring the AEC- - Special Event B, Launching of the Economic Report.
unctad.org/Symposium2013 - Delegates Muchhala from The Third World Network, Malaysia, Professor Abdel-Khalek from the University of Cairo, Egypt, Chief of the Civil Society Outreach Amel Haffouz, and Moderator Chief Correspondent for Reuters, Mr Tom Miles attend and present at the first plenary session, which discusses "Macroeconomic and Financial Governance on the Road to 2015" at the UNCTAD PubIic Symposium - Geneva, Switzerland, June 24. The Symposium lasts two days as delegates, representatives, government officials and interested observers from international backgrounds flock to engage in an open and interactive dialogue on key trade and development issues.
David Mascio, Endowed Chair, Roland and Sarah George Professor of Applied Finance, Stetson University. And Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Della Parola Capital Management, LLC
On Monday, June 6, 2016, Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen spoke to members, guests, and students at a World Affairs Council of Philadelphia luncheon event.
Janet L. Yellen took office as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 3, 2014, for a four-year term ending February 3, 2018. Dr. Yellen also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policymaking body. Prior to her appointment as Chair, Dr. Yellen served as Vice Chair of the Board of Governors, taking office in October 2010, when she simultaneously began a 14-year term as a member of the Board that will expire January 31, 2024.
Dr. Yellen is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley where she was the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business and Professor of Economics and has been a faculty member since 1980.
Dr. Yellen took leave from Berkeley for five years starting August 1994. She served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System through February 1997, and then left the Federal Reserve to become chair of the Council of Economic Advisers through August 1999. She also chaired the Economic Policy Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development from 1997 to 1999. She also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004 to 2010.
Dr. Yellen is a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has served as President of the Western Economic Association, Vice President of the American Economic Association and a Fellow of the Yale Corporation.
Dr. Yellen graduated summa cum laude from Brown University with a degree in economics in 1967, and received her Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 1971. She received the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale in 1997, an honorary doctor of laws degree from Brown in 1998, and an honorary doctor of humane letters from Bard College in 2000.
An Assistant Professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1976, Dr. Yellen served as an Economist with the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors in 1977 and 1978, and on the faculty of the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1978 to 1980.
Dr. Yellen has written on a wide variety of macroeconomic issues, while specializing in the causes, mechanisms, and implications of unemployment.
It was most certainly A day.
I went to Business Calc in the morning. Found a parking space! YES! Did some crazy maneuvering to get to it but it was worth almost hitting a pedestrian... That class was boring. My teacher reminds me SO much of the mom from the Golden Girls, only taller.
I came home and took the greatest nap with Goober. So cozy. Until my mom yanked my blanket off of my face telling me my brother had something to tell me... He finally starts at FPL next week. I'm pretty excited for him, too bad he'll never work with me at QVC ever again :( Bums me out a little.
At 630, I had Macroeconomics for 2 HOURS and holy balls it was boring. Literally almost fell asleep 7 times. He went on random rants about Snickers and Twix bars and the Healthcare bill and Nigeria and things that have nothing to do with anything. I was really frustrated.
After that, I met Dan at Barnes & Noble. She got some weird green drink... Gross. We sat in the kids section and read magazines and sex books and talked about 500 Days of Summer. FRIENDS MY BALLS!
In the parking lot, we played the "PENIS!" game. It got a little loud. We left haha.
I have to do Stats homework... I don't want to. I probably won't. I'm soooo motivated. NAHT.
6 June 2017 – OECD Forum 2017. Session: No Ordinary Disruption. OECD, Paris, France.
Moderator
Cyrille Lachèvre, Macroeconomics Reporter, L’Opinion, France
Speakers
Jacob Bundsgaard, Mayor of Aarhus, Denmark
Richard Dobbs, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Director, McKinsey Center for Government
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, President, CNIL, France
Diego Piacentini, Government Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Italy
Christoph Steck, Director Public Policy & Internet, Telefonica
Davor Ivo Stier, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Croatia (tbc)
Photo: OECD/Mariano Bordon
Session 3: Infrastructure Investment, Fiscal Space, and Growth: Does Asia Need More Official Financing for Investment?
With international financial conditions becoming less accommodative, and activity in some critical parts of Asia moving to a lower equilibrium, economic growth is likely to settle below the high rates of the past decade. Addressing these challenges will require a recalibration of macroeconomic policies, efforts to reduce vulnerabilities, and deeper structural reforms. Key issues include upgrading investment in infrastructure, public investment and maintaining fiscal space, improving educational outcomes and other steps to spur productivity.
Moderator:
Shereen Bhan, CNBC India
Panelists:
Jayant Sinha, Minister of State (Finance), India
Masatsugu Asakawa, Vice Minister of Finance for Foreign Affairs, Japan
Vitor Gaspar, Director, IMF Fiscal Affairs Department
Bambang Brodjonegoro, Minister of Finance, Indonesia
Rakesh Mohan, former Chairman, National Transport Development Committee, India
Session 3: Infrastructure Investment, Fiscal Space, and Growth: Does Asia Need More Official Financing for Investment?
With international financial conditions becoming less accommodative, and activity in some critical parts of Asia moving to a lower equilibrium, economic growth is likely to settle below the high rates of the past decade. Addressing these challenges will require a recalibration of macroeconomic policies, efforts to reduce vulnerabilities, and deeper structural reforms. Key issues include upgrading investment in infrastructure, public investment and maintaining fiscal space, improving educational outcomes and other steps to spur productivity.
Moderator:
Shereen Bhan, CNBC India
Panelists:
Jayant Sinha, Minister of State (Finance), India
Masatsugu Asakawa, Vice Minister of Finance for Foreign Affairs, Japan
Vitor Gaspar, Director, IMF Fiscal Affairs Department
Bambang Brodjonegoro, Minister of Finance, Indonesia
Rakesh Mohan, former Chairman, National Transport Development Committee, India
On Monday, June 6, 2016, Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen spoke to members, guests, and students at a World Affairs Council of Philadelphia luncheon event.
Janet L. Yellen took office as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 3, 2014, for a four-year term ending February 3, 2018. Dr. Yellen also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policymaking body. Prior to her appointment as Chair, Dr. Yellen served as Vice Chair of the Board of Governors, taking office in October 2010, when she simultaneously began a 14-year term as a member of the Board that will expire January 31, 2024.
Dr. Yellen is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley where she was the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business and Professor of Economics and has been a faculty member since 1980.
Dr. Yellen took leave from Berkeley for five years starting August 1994. She served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System through February 1997, and then left the Federal Reserve to become chair of the Council of Economic Advisers through August 1999. She also chaired the Economic Policy Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development from 1997 to 1999. She also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004 to 2010.
Dr. Yellen is a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has served as President of the Western Economic Association, Vice President of the American Economic Association and a Fellow of the Yale Corporation.
Dr. Yellen graduated summa cum laude from Brown University with a degree in economics in 1967, and received her Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 1971. She received the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale in 1997, an honorary doctor of laws degree from Brown in 1998, and an honorary doctor of humane letters from Bard College in 2000.
An Assistant Professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1976, Dr. Yellen served as an Economist with the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors in 1977 and 1978, and on the faculty of the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1978 to 1980.
Dr. Yellen has written on a wide variety of macroeconomic issues, while specializing in the causes, mechanisms, and implications of unemployment.
Chairperson of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), Festus G. Mogae, expresses his disappointment at the meeting of JMEC held in South Sudan’s capital Juba on 2 February 2016. “I am slightly disappointed that another date has come and gone…This disappointment stems not solely because a day on a calendar was missed, but because the potential, the opportunity, the possibility of a new government is so close, so vital for this country, that it must be taken, he explained. “Africa has too many lost generations already,” he lamented. “Let us use the opportunity we have had ourselves.”
He point that, today the South Sudanese pound is close to 30 against the US dollar, and pleaded with the parties. “I plead with you to avoid ruin. form the transitional government of national unity without further delay, restore stability, and repair the damage that has been done before it is too late, so that urgent economic assistance can become available.”
He pointed out that sound macroeconomic management in itself will not address South Sudan’s humanitarian crisis. Mogae assured the meeting that he received information from the ceasefire monitoring teams, that people in Mundri are “starving to death” saying that there would be more displacements from Equatoria to neighbouring Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
WPC 2019, Marrakech, October 13 - Hur Kyung-wook, President of Korean Bretton Woods Club, former Advisor to the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office, former Vice Minister for the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, former Senior Economist for the IMF
Ten years after the 2008 economic recession, the government is ill-prepared to defend itself against the next economic downturn. Interest rates remain low, partisanship remains intractable, and the federal debt is rising at an unprecedented rate. These factors will hamstring traditional monetary and fiscal stimulus.
In his new book, “Law and Macroeconomics,” Yale Law Professor Yair Listokin argues that we can respond more quickly to the next economic crisis by deploying a policy approach whose proven success is too rarely acknowledged: regulation. He proposes that we take seriously the idea that law can function as a macroeconomic tool, capable of stimulating demand when needed and relieving demand when it threatens to overheat economies. And though history has demonstrated that law is an unwieldy instrument of macroeconomic policy, Listokin argues that under certain conditions it offers a vital alternative to the monetary and fiscal policy tools.
On Tuesday, September 10, at an Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center event, Listokin presented the key findings of his research, and panelists deepened the discussion by addressing the following questions:
What role does the law play in stimulating aggregate demand?
How can laws and regulations complement traditional fiscal and monetary policy approaches to stabilizing the business cycle?
Can regulations act as an effective alternative to fiscal and monetary policy during economic downturn?
Which regulations should lawmakers implement to combat economic shocks?
Photo Credit : Chris Williams
Fulcrum Asset Management's Gavyn Davies and Goldman Sachs' JIm O'Neill discuss the Macroeconomic Climate with the FT's Martin Wolf at the FT Business of Luxury Summit 2011.
November 14, 2017:
SAIS Women Lead hosted a conversation on Macroeconomic and Structural Reform in Japan with Johns Hopkins SAIS Alumna Kathy Matsui, Vice Chair of Goldman Sachs Japan. The conversation was moderated by John Lipsky, Peter G. Peterson Distinguished Scholar, Kissinger Center for Global Affairs.
Session 3: Infrastructure Investment, Fiscal Space, and Growth: Does Asia Need More Official Financing for Investment?
With international financial conditions becoming less accommodative, and activity in some critical parts of Asia moving to a lower equilibrium, economic growth is likely to settle below the high rates of the past decade. Addressing these challenges will require a recalibration of macroeconomic policies, efforts to reduce vulnerabilities, and deeper structural reforms. Key issues include upgrading investment in infrastructure, public investment and maintaining fiscal space, improving educational outcomes and other steps to spur productivity.
Moderator:
Shereen Bhan, CNBC India
Panelists:
Jayant Sinha, Minister of State (Finance), India
Masatsugu Asakawa, Vice Minister of Finance for Foreign Affairs, Japan
Vitor Gaspar, Director, IMF Fiscal Affairs Department
Bambang Brodjonegoro, Minister of Finance, Indonesia
Rakesh Mohan, former Chairman, National Transport Development Committee, India
Hi everyone. Thank you for coming to the press conference, which opens the 2013 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF. First, let me again express my deep condolences of the family and friends of people who died or were wounded in the attack in Boston earlier this week.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I outlined an ambitious agenda for the global community that called for a two-pronged approach for a world free of poverty.
The first is virtually ending extreme poverty by 2030. The second is promoting shared prosperity by fostering income growth of the bottom 40 percent of the population in every country. And for that second goal, we also mean sharing prosperity across generations, and that calls for bold action on climate change.
I have no doubt that the world can end extreme poverty within a generation, but this will be much harder than most people realize. It is far from a given. It will take ingenuity, focus, commitment, and visionary leaders. But if we succeed, we will have accomplished one of humankind’s most historic accomplishments.
Let’s take a look at the situation in the world today. More than four years after the start of the financial crisis, high-income countries continue to struggle with high unemployment, weak growth and economic fragility.
The good news is that taken as a whole developing countries are doing relatively well, with growth expected to reach about 5.5 percent this year. That should strengthen to just under 6 percent by 2015. Indeed, developing countries are accounting for more than half of global growth.
But too often we lose sight of the fact that this overall story hides a wide range of outcomes across countries. In Africa, about a quarter of the countries grew at 7 percent or higher last year and a number of them are among the fastest growing in the world. In East Asia and the Pacific, output is expanding rapidly amid fears of overheating and asset bubbles. But growth in several major middle-income countries, including Brazil, India, Russia, and Turkey, has slowed in part because of unresolved bottlenecks in these economies.
Elsewhere in the developing world, recovery has been more elusive. This diversity of experience among developing countries means that there is no “one-size fits all” prescription for policy, and external developments can no longer be seen as the principal source of problems. Now more than ever, solutions need to be found in domestic macroeconomic and structural policies that address the distinct conditions in individual countries.
If we are to end extreme poverty within a generation, we’ll need at least three things to happen. First, the high growth rate in the developing world over the past 15 years must accelerate. Second, growth has to translate into poverty reduction and job creation and it must be inclusive and curb inequality. And third, we must avert or mitigate potential shocks, such as climate disasters or new food, fuel, or financial crises.
In particular, doing better on growth means doing even more of the kinds of reforms that have underpinned the strong developing-country growth of the past 15 years. That means eliminating bottlenecks; additional investment in infrastructure; and, to ensure that the poor participate in the benefits of growth, much greater investments in education and health care.
As we move ahead, we also must address climate change with a plan that matches the scope of the problem. Climate change is not just an environmental challenge. It is a fundamental threat to economic development. Unless the world takes bold action now, a disastrously warming planet threatens to put prosperity out of reach of millions and roll back decades of development.
At the World Bank Group, we are stepping up our mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk management work. Some 130 countries have asked the World Bank for assistance in climate-related work.
Also, as we move toward these poverty goals, we also must be far more effective in fragile and conflict affected states. We now hope to shift more funding toward fragile states under our concessionary lending fund, the International Development Association, or IDA. If we hope to meet our goals of ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity, we must be successful in fragile states. Next month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and I plan to travel to the Great Lakes region of Africa. I believe that the combined efforts of the United Nations and the World Bank Group on political, security and development fronts can make a major difference in moving fragile states out of fragility.
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April 18, 2013
unctad.org/Symposium2013 - Mr Gouda Abdel-Khalek, Professor of Economics from the University of Cairo, Egypt, attends and presents in the first plenary session, which discusses "Macroeconomic and Financial Governance on the Road to 2015" at the UNCTAD PubIic Symposium - Geneva, Switzerland, June 24. The Syposium lasts two days as delegates, representatives, government officials and interested observers from international backgrounds flock to engage in an open and interactive dialogue on key trade and development issues.
On July 26, 2013, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with Brazil.
During the last decade, Brazil’s strong macroeconomic frameworks have contributed to preserve macroeconomic stability, support robust growth, and underpin sustained poverty reduction. The key pillars of Brazil’s macroeconomic frameworks have been the fiscal responsibility law, the inflation targeting regime, and the flexible exchange rate. In addition, a strong prudential framework has underpinned a sound financial sector that withstood well the global financial crisis of 2008–09. The prolonged macroeconomic stability has facilitated the adoption of far-reaching social programs that have produced a remarkable social transformation—in particular, a substantial reduction in poverty and the increase in living standards of large segments of the population.
Brazil’s economy is recovering gradually from the slowdown that began in mid-2011. Consumption remained resilient last year underpinned by low unemployment and broad gains in real wages, although it has slowed somewhat more recently. After a protracted period of weakness, investment has begun to recover in recent quarters while business confidence has firmed. With the economy estimated to be operating close to potential, supply-side constraints have restrained near-term growth and exacerbated inflationary pressures. Low unemployment has also contributed to demand-pull and cost-push inflation pressures. End-of-period inflation, the reference measure for inflation-targeting in Brazil, has been below the upper limit of the 4½ ± 2 percent target range for several years; it has been running however in the upper range of the target band, while medium-term inflation expectations have risen above the mid-point target. The authorities have started to focus on alleviating supply-side constraints (including infrastructure bottlenecks) and containing inflationary pressures by tightening monetary policy.
The external current account deficit has widened, reflecting weaker external demand, buoyant consumption and, more recently, a pickup in investment and temporary disruptions in oil production. The real exchange rate depreciated over the last year, most recently as part of a broader realignment across emerging markets. At the same time, unit labor costs in U.S. dollars have remained broadly unchanged, limiting the impact on competitiveness, as the effect of the weaker currency has been offset by rapid growth in real wages and stagnant labor productivity gains. Capital inflows, particularly portfolio flows, subsided in 2012 linked to a weaker growth outlook and lower interest rates in Brazil, and the use of capital flow measures. More recently, global financial volatility and higher global risk aversion have further dampened portfolio inflows to Brazil. Equity prices have declined and corporate debt and equity issuances have slowed, in line with other major emerging markets. Foreign direct investment inflows, however, have remained robust. International reserves have remained broadly stable at a high level following a halt in reserves accumulation since mid-2012.
Financial conditions have tightened but credit growth has remained strong, driven by public banks’ lending. Mortgage lending has continued to grow strongly, but remains a relatively small share of total credit. Real estate prices, though moderating, have continued to increase. The authorities have made progress in implementing key recommendations of the 2012 Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) Update.
Executive Board Assessment
Executive Directors commended the Brazilian authorities for their long-standing commitment to sound policy frameworks, notably the fiscal responsibility law, inflation targeting, the flexible exchange rate, and a strong prudential regime. They noted that these frameworks, together with the implementation of social programs, have underpinned macroeconomic stability and remarkable growth over the past decade, lifting living standards and reducing poverty.
Directors observed that, in addition to headwinds from external conditions, domestic supply-side constraints and policy uncertainties may be holding back near-term growth. A tighter policy stance would help address persistent price pressures, safeguard confidence in policy frameworks, and set the stage for a medium-term rebalancing of demand away from consumption. In this context, Directors welcomed the initiation of a monetary tightening cycle, and agreed that monetary policy should remain geared at containing inflationary pressures and anchoring inflation expectations. They underscored the need for a steady, measured pace of fiscal consolidation, anchored on Brazil’s long-standing primary surplus target. Some Directors saw a continued role for fiscal stimulus as a counter-cyclical tool. More generally, Directors considered that monetary policy should play the main role in aggregate demand management, with fiscal policy focused on rebuilding buffers.
Directors highlighted the importance of adhering to a primary surplus target that places public debt firmly on a downward path. They encouraged efforts to maintain fiscal discipline at the sub-national level, ease budget rigidities to increase public savings, and recognize more fully potential fiscal risks associated with public bank assets and infrastructure concession agreements. Directors also recommended a gradual reduction of policy lending to public banks to improve debt dynamics. A number of Directors considered that a more detailed assessment of Brazil’s public debt encompassing net and gross concepts would permit an enhanced interpretation of fiscal developments and prospects.
Directors welcomed the substantial progress in strengthening financial regulation and supervision. They observed that Brazil’s banking system is sound and well placed to implement Basel III ahead of schedule. Directors noted nevertheless that some risks, notably those associated with household credit and mortgage loans, warrant ongoing vigilance. They welcomed the progress in implementing most of the recommendations of the recent Financial Sector Assessment Program Update.
Directors concurred that the flexible exchange rate remains the main shock absorber in periods of financial turbulence, and welcomed the authorities’ intention to limit interventions in the foreign exchange market to moderating excessive volatility. They agreed that Brazil has an adequate toolkit to deal with capital inflow pressures, by allowing the exchange rate to appreciate somewhat, supported by other policies, including some further temporary reserve accumulation and carefully-considered capital flow management measures.
Directors supported the focus of reforms to ease supply-side constraints, noting that the government’s market-based concessions program would boost investment and alleviate infrastructure bottlenecks. They emphasized that comprehensive efforts to boost productivity, competitiveness, and investment are critical for raising potential growth. To this end, it will be important to increase domestic saving, improve the minimum wage indexation mechanism, and continue to reform the pension system. Other efforts to foster private investment should include streamlining taxation and improving business conditions.
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Under Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country's economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board. At the conclusion of the discussion, the Managing Director, as Chairman of the Board, summarizes the views of Executive Directors, and this summary is transmitted to the country's authorities. An explanation of any qualifiers used in summings up can be found here: www.imf.org/external/np/sec/misc/qualifiers.htm.
Congratulations to the Barcelona GSE Class of 2014!
Graduation Ceremony at AXA Auditorium
July 10, 2014
Barcelona GSE Alumni & Friends:
Deputy Executive Secretary of ESCAP, Mr. Shun-ichi Murata and Director of Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division of ESCAP, Dr. Anisuzzaman Chowdhury address participants at the Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific.
2018-01-17: President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina sharing a frame with Dr. Celestin Monga, Vice-President, Economic Governance & Knowledge Management, AfDB; Dr. Abebe Shimles, Acting Director, Macroeconomic Policy, Forecasting and Research (AfDB) during the launch of the African Economic Outlook 2018: Innovative financing for infrastructure development.
Workshops on Bounded Rationality in Choice, Firms in the Global Economy, International Capital Flows, and Theoretical and Experimental Macroeconomics.
About the Barcelona GSE Summer Forum: j.mp/SummerForumBarcelonaGSE
Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad - known mostly as MM to his friends and admirers - died in a hospital in suburban Washington on July 22. He had been unwell for several months not because of any disease. He was just weighed down by age and by his concern for Pakistan, a country he dearly loved and to the service of which he devoted his entire and extremely productive life.
MM was born on February 28, 1913, in Qadian, India. He was educated first at Government College, Lahore, and later in Britain's London and Oxford Universities. He joined the Indian Civil Service - the ICS - in 1939. By recruiting Indians to the ICS, the British aimed to "Indianize" the administrative structure that was regarded as the "steel frame" in their rule of India. This process of "Indianization" was disrupted by the Second World War. When it resumed after the war was over it took a different form since the ICS was opened to the personnel of other services.
The ICS was dissolved in 1947 when the British left India. Its members were invited to opt for service in one of the two successor states - to serve either in India, a predominantly Hindu country, or to go to Pakistan, a country carved out specifically for the Muslim citizens of British India. Eighty one ICS officers, including MM Ahmad, opted for service in Pakistan. Those who chose to come to Pakistan formed the core of a new central service initially called the Pakistan Administrative Service. Later, the PAS was rechristened as the Civil Service of Pakistan, the CSP.
Most of this contingent of highly able and trained civil servants who opted for service in Pakistan were to play important roles in establishing the state of Pakistan. Most of them went to Karachi, the country's first capital. MM chose instead to go to Lahore, the capital of the part of Punjab that was attached to Pakistan. Among the positions MM held in Lahore was that of secretary of finance. Later, he went to Islamabad, Pakistan's second capital, where he served in a number of senior positions, including secretary of commerce, secretary of finance, and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. When General Yahya Khan deposed President Ayub Khan and placed Pakistan under martial law, MM was appointed adviser to the new president and given the rank of a federal minister.
MM served in that capacity until the outbreak of the civil war between East and West Pakistan. He went to Washington soon after that fateful event and joined the World Bank's board as executive director responsible for Pakistan and a number of other Muslim countries. Pakistan lost its seat on the Bank's board when Bangladesh became independent and decided to join the constituency led by India. MM stayed on in Washington and was elected deputy executive secretary of the joint ministerial committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, better known as the Development Committee. He retired from that position in 1984.
I got to know MM Ahmad well over the years. Although I was 21 years his junior in the CSP, I had the opportunity to work with him on several occasions. The first time I came in close contact with him was in 1969 when the martial law government of General Yahya Khan decided to undo the "One Unit" of West Pakistan. This was a momentous decision, the full import of which was not recognized by the military government.
The creation of the "One Unit" of West Pakistan was a part of the delicate balance between political forces that dominated Pakistan after the country achieved independence. The task of constitution-making had been made difficult by the leaders of West Pakistan - especially those who belonged to Punjab - who were not prepared to accept any arrangement on the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments that would make East Pakistan the dominant force in the country's political structure. That would have happened had the provinces of Pakistan been allowed representation in the national legislature on the basis of population. In that case East Pakistan, with more people than all the provinces and states of West Pakistan combined, would have gained the majority of seats in the national parliament.
This situation was not acceptable to Punjab. A compromise was reached on the basis of what came to be called the "parity formula" according to which the country was to have two federating units, East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Each unit was to have equal representation in the national legislature. This led to the creation of the One Unit of West Pakistan in 1956. In 1958, Pakistan promulgated its first constitution.
The parity formula survived the demise of the constitution of 1956 and the establishment of a new political structure under the constitution of 1962. However, the highly centralized political structure under the military government created a number of problems. President Ayub Khan totally dominated the federal government and Governors Amir Muhammad Khan of Kalabagh and Abdul Monem Khan ruled West and East Pakistan respectively with an equal amount of authority. Concentration of so much power in three pairs of hands did not sit well with the people. In East Pakistan resentment built up against Islamabad's domination and the smaller provinces of West Pakistan were alienated by the highly authoritarian rule of Nawab of Kalabgh. On coming to power, Yahya Khan responded to these concerns by scrapping the "parity" arrangement between East and West Pakistan and by dissolving the West Pakistan One Unit.
The difficult task of dismantling the One Unit was entrusted to a committee of officials headed by MM Ahmad. MM represented Punjab while Ghulam Ishaq Khan represented the Frontier Province, A.G.N. Kazi, Sindh and Yusuf Achkzai Balochitsn. The committee's secretariat had four officials: Zahur Azhar, Dr. Humayun Khan, Dr. Tariq Siddiqui and myself. The committee's task was a complex one. It had not only to dismantle the One Unit arrangement but also to create four new provinces by merging the old princely states with the directly administered areas.
MM Ahmad was equal to the task. For several weeks with patience, dignity and intelligence - three distinguishing traits of his personality - he guided the 'One Unit dissolution committee', towards resolving all outstanding issues in time set by the Yahya government. The committee's plan went into effect on July 1, 1970, when West Pakistan "One Unit" was dissolved and all power was transferred to the provinces of Balochistan, the North-west Frontier Province, Punjab and Sindh.
My second close association with MM occurred during the same period when he was entrusted with the delicate task of getting the governments of East and West Pakistan to accept the macroeconomic framework developed by the Planning Commission for the Fourth Five-Year Plan. The plan was to run for the period between 1970 and 1975. By the time the Planning Commission revealed its approach, the citizens of East Pakistan had been convinced that the remarkable economic performance of the western wing of the country was sustained by the resources garnered from their province. They wanted this bias to be corrected during the five years of the Fourth Plan.
Two panels of economists were set up, one chaired by Dr Pervez Hasan, West Pakistan's Chief Economist, and the other by Professor Nurul Islam, a Bengali economist, to resolve the differences between the two provinces. Not surprisingly, the two panels arrived at different conclusions. Hasan's panel did not reject the view that public sector expenditure had played a role in the rapid economic growth of the western province. However, it also emphasized the decisive part played by the private sector. The Bengali economists argued that much of West Pakistan's better performance was the result of large public sector investments which had been financed by external capital flows which the central government had largely directed towards that province.
Once again, MM Ahmad stepped into the breach to resolve the dispute between the two groups of experts and the two provinces they represented. As the economic adviser to Governor Nur Khan of West Pakistan, I attended several meetings chaired by MM to develop a consensus between the two provinces of the country. He laboured hard to arrive at an agreement but did not succeed as the political temperature was constantly rising. In the fall of 1970, East Pakistan's coastal areas were hit by a devastating cyclone that left a million people dead. The tardy response of the central government to this great human tragedy further soured relations between the two provinces. The rest, as they say, is history.
My closest association with MM occurred when, in 1981, I was made responsible for representing the World Bank on the secretariat of the Development Committee. MM at that point was the deputy executive secretary of the committee. The committee, straddling between the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, was charged by its members to improve understanding on a number of important issues between the governments of the developed and developing parts of the world. The beginning of the decade of the eighties saw many developing countries faced with difficult times. Much of Latin America was ravaged by the problem of debt incurred to sustain imports while the price of oil increased four-fold. World trade, recognized as an important source of growth for the developing world, was doing little for the commodity exporters of the developing world.
Official development assistance, once promised to increase steadily and significantly, had stagnated. The Development Committee's agenda was getting long with difficult subjects being added constantly to it. MM played an extremely important role in helping the governments to understand that they had to work together to bring about sustained growth all over the world.
It soon became clear to us - to MM and myself - that we needed a strong developing country person to chair the committee and guide its deliberations. We turned to Ghulam Ishaq Khan who was at that time finance minister of Pakistan. Ishaq and MM were good friends and it was because of that friendship that the former agreed to contest the election of the chairmanship of the Development Committee. MM was instrumental in getting all the governments represented on the committee to agree to Ishaq Khan's candidature. The Pakistani finance minister was elected by a unanimous vote. Helped by MM, Ishaq performed impressively in that position, winning the respect of both developed and developing countries. He was re-elected for a second term and continued in that position even after he left the finance ministry and became chairman of the Senate in Pakistan.
MM gave all he had to Pakistan.
On Monday, June 6, 2016, Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen spoke to members, guests, and students at a World Affairs Council of Philadelphia luncheon event.
Janet L. Yellen took office as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 3, 2014, for a four-year term ending February 3, 2018. Dr. Yellen also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policymaking body. Prior to her appointment as Chair, Dr. Yellen served as Vice Chair of the Board of Governors, taking office in October 2010, when she simultaneously began a 14-year term as a member of the Board that will expire January 31, 2024.
Dr. Yellen is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley where she was the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business and Professor of Economics and has been a faculty member since 1980.
Dr. Yellen took leave from Berkeley for five years starting August 1994. She served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System through February 1997, and then left the Federal Reserve to become chair of the Council of Economic Advisers through August 1999. She also chaired the Economic Policy Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development from 1997 to 1999. She also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004 to 2010.
Dr. Yellen is a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has served as President of the Western Economic Association, Vice President of the American Economic Association and a Fellow of the Yale Corporation.
Dr. Yellen graduated summa cum laude from Brown University with a degree in economics in 1967, and received her Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 1971. She received the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale in 1997, an honorary doctor of laws degree from Brown in 1998, and an honorary doctor of humane letters from Bard College in 2000.
An Assistant Professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1976, Dr. Yellen served as an Economist with the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors in 1977 and 1978, and on the faculty of the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1978 to 1980.
Dr. Yellen has written on a wide variety of macroeconomic issues, while specializing in the causes, mechanisms, and implications of unemployment.
University of California--San Diego economics professor James Hamilton discusses oil prices and macroeconomics at a research conference at Goizueta Business School, Nov. 3, 2011.
The conference, titled "What should we really expect from macroeconomic policy?," was co-sponsored by The Halle Institute and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Policymakers, academics, and business leaders gathered at Emory University to discuss fiscal policy and the recent financial crisis, oil prices and macroeconomics, practical considerations in developing policies, and more. Learn more: bit.ly/macro-econ.
Photo by Wilford Harewood.