The 2022 High-Level Peer-to-Peer Workshop for Central Bankers from the Caucasus, Central Asia, Moldova and Mongolia

The 7th International Monetary Fund (IMF)-Swiss National Bank (SNB)-Joint Vienna Institute (JVI) peer-to-peer workshop for Caucasus, Central Asia, Moldova, and Mongolia (CCAMM) central bank practitioners was held in Vienna during October 18-20, 2022. This workshop, the first in-person one since the start of the pandemic, focused on “Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy Challenges under Heightened Uncertainty”. The workshop was attended by senior central bank officials from 9 countries, and included keynote presentations by Beata Javorcik, Chief Economist of the EBRD, and Martin Summer, head of the economic studies division of the Austrian National Bank, and presentations by staff from the IMF, the JVI, and the SNB, as well as by country participants.

The sessions this year addressed issues around (i) the worsening global economic outlook and the high level of uncertainty, which complicates the conduct of monetary policy; (ii) recent inflation developments and why they proved hard to anticipate; (iii) the IMF’s Integrated Policy Framework, which jointly considers the role in responding to economic shocks of monetary policy, foreign exchange interventions, macroprudential measures, capital flow management measures, and their interactions with each other and other policies; (iv) operational aspects of monetary and FX policies; (v) the ongoing strengthening of monetary policy frameworks in the region; and (vi) capacity development needs in the areas discussed during the workshop. The discussions on the various topics benefitted considerably from participants, most of them deputy governors and department managers, being in the same room, unlike last year. The exchanges of views were frank and very rich, with a lot of peer-learning happening during sessions, but also over coffee breaks and meals. The feedback from participants on the workshop was very positive, with suggestions made on how the workshop could be expanded in the coming years. 

Hervé Joly, Director, Joint Vienna Institute