ECB Forum to focus on monetary policy challenges in changing world

  • Lusa
  • 27 June 2022

After two years in which the ECB Forum was held online due to the pandemic, the three-day summit returns to Sintra in face-to-face format, as in previous years.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is from Monday once more holding its annual forum in Sintra, in the district of Lisbon, with this year’s event dedicated to the challenges for monetary policy in a rapidly changing world.

After two years in which the ECB Forum was held online due to the pandemic, the three-day summit returns to Sintra in face-to-face format, as in previous years.

This year’s theme has been changed to reflect recent global developments and the summit will focus on discussions of the challenges currently facing the euro-zone economy.

“Higher inflation, notably as a result of rising energy prices, pandemic-related supply shortages and the release of pent-up demand, has created a difficult and uncertain environment for central banks around the globe,” the ECB highlights on its summit page. “And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has complicated the economic outlook even further, particularly for Europe. We will look at the implications of all this for the euro area economy in the global context, including trends that seem to have been reinforced by the pandemic, and at how they may affect monetary policy in the future.”

The aim, note organisers, is to discuss, in particular, the role of international production networks and key factors in the behaviour of energy prices, including geopolitical developments and changes in supply structures.

As for the formulation of monetary policy, the impact of inflation expectations and property market booms will also be a topic of discussion. Sessions on new technologies are also planned, as well as central bank digital currencies in the current global environment and the characteristics of a potential digital euro.

The summit is to begin on Monday evening with a dinner, preceded by a welcome address by ECB president Christine Lagarde.

On Tuesday, the forum itself kicks off with a speech by Lagarde, with a session on globalisation and the labour market moderated by the ECB’s chief economist, Philip Lane, another on energy price volatility, and a panel on the digital euro project.

On Wednesday, Luis de Guindos, ECB vice-president, is to chair a discussion on monetary policy and the property boom, as well as a session on global value chains, supply constraints and international trade.

There will also be a panel on inflation expectations in the formulation of monetary policy, moderated by Isabel Schnabel, a member of the ECB’s executive board.

On the same day in the afternoon the highlight will be the panel in which in addition to Lagarde, participants include the chair of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, and the director general of the Bank for International Settlements, Agustín Carstens.

Sintra has hosted the annual ECB forum since 2013, replicating the model that the US Fed had established in 1978 in the city of Jackson Hole, in the US state of Kansas.