2024 MONEY AND BANKING CONFERENCE

In his opening speech, the Governor of the BCRA highlighted the importance of focusing the debate on fiscal dominance

The Governor of the BCRA, Santiago Bausili, pointed out today in the opening speech of the Money and Banking Conference that making fiscal dominance the focus of the debate is a decision that is related to one of the most important achievements of the economic program of the past ten months. The Governor also confirmed that the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, accepted the invitation to give a speech tomorrow outside of the program.

“In line with fiscal expectations, inflation expectations have been anchored. In the first seven months of the year, expected inflation according to the Market Expectations Survey (REM) was always on the decrease and higher than the rate actually observed later on. The intention behind considering fiscal dominance the focus of our debates is to take into account the context: in the last twenty years, the BCRA provided monetary financing to the Treasury every year, even in years of primary surplus,” Bausili told an audience of more than a thousand people.

And he added: “More than 60 p.p. of GDP were financed with monetary issuance. In the past four years alone, the BCRA provided financing to the Treasury equivalent to 22 p.p. of GDP. The BCRA's balance sheet restructuring that we have been carrying out this year reverses these flows and, for the first time, the Treasury contributes with improvements to our balance sheet. This represents a contractionary factor of money supply.”

Bausili highlighted the professional background and talent of the speakers who make up the panels of the 2024 Money and Banking Conference. Under the heading "Fiscal Deficits, Monetary Policy and Inflation,” Bausili explained that policymakers will contribute lessons learned from their experience, academics will help conceptualize the challenges that Argentina has to face, and private-sector decision-makers will provide their perspective on the current situation and what lies ahead.

This edition of the Money and Banking Conference is held at Palacio Libertad, and is part of the BCRA’s academic and outreach initiatives, seeking to stimulate discussion on macroeconomic, monetary and financial topics.

October 14, 2024