The 2023 High-Level Peer-to-Peer Workshop for Central Bankers from the Caucasus, Central Asia, Moldova, and Mongolia

The 8th International Monetary Fund (IMF)-Swiss National Bank (SNB)-Joint Vienna Institute (JVI) peer-to-peer workshop for central bank practitioners from the Caucasus, Central Asia, Moldova, and Mongolia (CCAMM) was held in Vienna during June 12-14, 2023. The workshop was attended by senior central bank officials from all ten countries, and included presentations by staff from the IMF, the JVI, and the SNB, as well as by country participants and by three external speakers: Mr. Ernest Gnan, Secretary General, SUERF, and Honorary Economic Advisor to the OeNB Governor; Mr. Alexander Plekhanov, Director of Transition Impact and Global Economics, EBRD; and Mr. Kilvar Kessler, Chairman of the Board, Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority.

The sessions this year discussed the following issues: (i) re-thinking monetary policy in a time of higher inflation and lower growth; (ii) tackling higher inflation across the CCAMM region; (iii) the natural rate of interest: its drivers, prospects, and implications for macroeconomic policies; (iv) the interactions between monetary policy and financial stability; (v) advances in 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; (vi) Fintech developments from a central bank’s perspective; and (vii) how central banks in the region assess the skills gap among their staff, and how they go about filling them. The discussions on the various topics among participants, most of them central bank deputy governors and department directors, were frank and very rich, with a lot of peer-learning happening during sessions, but also over coffee breaks and meals.

The 9th CCAMM workshop is expected to take place in 2024.

Hervé Joly, Director, Joint Vienna Institute