The 2024 Money and Banking Conference organized by the BCRA at Palacio Libertad broke attendance records, with the participation of more than 1,100 people. Twenty internationally recognized speakers gave presentations at the event, and the closing remarks were made by the President of Argentina, Javier Milei.
The speakers’ quality and reputation—central bankers, academics, economic consultants, and local and international financial leaders—together with the level of the participation and discussion, attracted great interest and had a major impact on the media and on public debate.
The presentations and videos of the 2024 Money and Banking Conference—under the theme Fiscal Deficits, Monetary Policy and Inflation—are now available on the BCRA’s website.
At the opening ceremony, the Governor of the BCRA, Santiago Bausili, underscored the importance of discussing fiscal dominance, pointing out that “in the last twenty years, the BCRA provided monetary financing to the Treasury every year.” He also highlighted the end of this practice as one of the most important achievements of the current economic program.
Distinguished economists took part in the different panels on key issues for the stabilization process of the Argentine economy. Ricardo Arriazu (Founding Partner of Arriazu Macroanalistas), Gustavo Cañonero (President of CMF Asset Management and former Deputy Governor of the BCRA) and Rafael Di Tella (Fellow at Harvard University and Professor at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT)) shared their opinions on the role of fiscal, monetary, and foreign exchange policies within this process. They provided a comprehensive view based on their vast experience in economic analysis and financial consulting at the local and international levels.
In addition, the panel on Brazil and Israel, and the panel on Peru and Uruguay—two bimonetary economies—analyzed different experiences of economic stabilization that have managed to lower inflation in a steady manner. The speakers included Gustavo Franco (Partner and Senior Advisor of RBI and former Governor of the Central Bank of Brazil), Leonardo Leiderman (Professor at Tel Aviv University and former Head of the Research Department of the Bank of Israel), Adrián Armas (Central Manager of Economic Studies of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru) and Gerardo Licandro (Economic Advisory Manager of the Central Bank of Uruguay).
Neel Kashkari (President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis) and Pablo Hernández de Cos (former Governor of the Bank of Spain) discussed the perspectives on fiscal-monetary interaction in developed countries. Their presentations offered a broad overview on how central banks in advanced economies manage these challenges and how their lessons can be relevant for emerging economies such as Argentina.
The academic approach was also high on the agenda. Several presentations focused on the interaction between fiscal and monetary policies and their effects on economic stability. Juan Pablo Nicolini (Senior Research Economist of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and Professor at UTDT) gave a detailed presentation on fiscal dominance and its impact and perspectives on economic growth. In turn, Iván Werning (Robert M. Solow Professor of Economics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research) presented his analysis of quasi-fiscal dominance, a different relationship between the monetary policy rate and inflation. Gregory Makoff (Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School) focused his presentation on how prolonged fiscal indiscipline led to the most complex and costly debt restructuring process.
There was a panel on the global financial cycle prospects and their potential impact on emerging countries. In this sense, Claudio Irigoyen (Chief Economist of Bank of America), Graham Stock (Emerging Markets Senior Sovereign Strategist of Blue Bay Asset Management) and Thomas Smith (Portfolio Manager of MetLife Investment Management) focused on the challenges faced by emerging economies in a context of high financial volatility. Another panel analyzed the transformation of the Argentine financial system. Speakers Fabián Kon (CEO of Banco Galicia), Jorge Alberto Bledel (CEO of BBVA Argentina) and Osvaldo Giménez (CEO of Mercado Pago) discussed the prospects of a crowding in cycle in the local financial system.
Vladimir Werning, Deputy Governor of the BCRA, closed the presentations by discussing the Argentine case, characterizing it as an extreme example of fiscal dominance. However, Werning stressed that this process is being reversed thanks to the ongoing stabilization program and said that the measures adopted have been fundamental for such progress. Finally, he shared his conclusions on the lessons learned throughout the presentations and the implications for the future of Argentina.
The President of Argentina, Javier Milei, was in charge of the last presentation—outside of the program. His presentation was divided into three topics: the inheritance received; the diagnosis and the key role of good economic theory to solve Argentina's problems; and the policies implemented, together with the results and the expectations for the future. The President referred to the critical situation of the country when he took office, and discussed, in theory and practice, the successful solutions implemented since December 10, 2023.
The 2024 Money and Banking Conference is part of the BCRA’s initiatives to stimulate academic discussion on macroeconomic, monetary and financial topics.
October 18, 2024
