The Asian Monetary Policy Forum (AMPF) convenes today at the Shangri-La Hotel for the fifth consecutive year. Held in conjunction with the annual conference of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER) that took place from 21–24 May 2018, the Forum is co-organised and funded by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The AMPF offers a valuable platform for participants to exchange views and share insights in their areas of expertise, with the aim of raising the level of intellectual discourse on economic and monetary challenges confronting Asian policymakers. The organisers have been very encouraged by the high-level participation at this Forum and the great interest it has garnered over the years.
A joint ABFER/AMPF dinner last night marked the close of the ABFER conference, as well as the official opening of the AMPF. The dinner’s highlight was a conversation with Mr. Timothy F. Geithner, President of Warburg Pincus, moderated by Sir Howard Davies, Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, on “Lessons from the Financial Crisis”.
The AMPF programme today will begin with a keynote opening address by Dr. Tao Zhang, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. Dr. Zhang will address some of the policy challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region as it attempts to enhance macroeconomic resilience. The speech will focus on the importance of strengthening monetary policy frameworks and improving central bank communications to address inflation expectations, as well as the need to deepen financial inclusion.
The AMPF commissioned paper follows, with one of the world’s leading authorities on international banking and finance—Dr. Hyun Song Shin, Economic Adviser and Head of Research at the Bank for International Settlements presenting his paper on “Gauging Procyclicality and Financial Vulnerability in Asia through the BIS Banking and Financial Statistics”. Dr. Shin and his co-authors demonstrate the usefulness of the BIS’ international banking and financial statistics, in particular how these can serve as real-time early warning indicators of financial fragilities. The commissioned paper will be discussed by Markus K. Brunnermeier, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Economics and Director of the Bendheim Center for Finance at Princeton University, and Dr. Linda Goldberg, Senior Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The AMPF programme this year includes a new session that features policy notes on the theme of globalisation, moderated by Andrew Rose, B.T. Rocca Jr. Professor, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. This discussion is timely, given the current challenges confronting the multilateral trading system and the debate over financial globalisation. Douglas Irwin, John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College, will discuss “Trump Trade Policy: A Frustrating Return to the 1980s”, and Alan Taylor, Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of California, Davis, will review the academic literature on “The Trilemma Then and Now”.
The highlight of the 2018 AMPF is a panel discussion on “Front-Line Perspectives on the Asian and Global Financial Crises” among three distinguished current and former policymakers: Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies and Chairman of MAS; Mr. Timothy F. Geithner, President of Warburg Pincus; and Lord Adair Turner, Chairman of the Governing Board, Institute for New Economic Thinking. The panelists had experienced these crises at first hand and played critical roles in devising policy responses. Steven Davis, William H. Abbott Distinguished Service Professor of International Business and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, will moderate the panel discussion.
Professor Davis remarked that “Chicago Booth is extremely pleased to join the NUS Business School, ABFER, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore in sponsoring the fifth Asian Monetary Policy Forum. The 2018 AMPF promises to deliver cutting-edge research on detecting potential financial crises, seasoned perspectives on the global trade and exchange rate environments, and an insightful set of reflections on two of the most consequential financial crises in recent decades”.
Professor Bernard Yeung, Dean and Stephen Riady Distinguished Professor at NUS Business School, said: “In its fifth year, the AMPF has established itself as a significant platform that provides an Asian context to evolving global issues. More than twenty years after the Asian Financial Crisis and a decade after the Great Recession, it is the right time to understand how they have shaped our policies and economies, and draw key lessons to inform on our future direction. It has been a most rewarding collaboration between ABFER, Chicago Booth, MAS and the NUS Business School, to establish this Forum that has drawn together many eminent policymakers, as well as illustrious financial and business economists”.
Mr Edward Robinson, Assistant Managing Director (Economic Policy) & Chief Economist, MAS, said: “We have a line-up of distinguished speakers at AMPF 2018, including the panelists who played critical roles in navigating their respective economies through the major financial crises of the preceding two decades. With their collective wisdom and the application of robust analytical tools to the empirics of these past events, we look forward to new insights into the dynamics of crises and their management. We are delighted to once again join our partners Chicago Booth, ABFER and NUS in organising this Forum.”
More information on AMPF and conference details can be found at abfer.org/events/asian-monetary-policy-forum.
