Europe and Japan: Monetary policies in the age of uncertainty- Part 4

On 2 October Bruegel and the Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University organised their annual conference, this time focusing on monetary policy.

Monetary policies have a transformative potential. Lack of understanding of these conventional and unconventional policies around the world can have a disruptive effect and delay the so much needed proposals in today’s uncertain economic and political environment.

This event discussed whether the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) have a chance of reaching their inflation targets- which is their core mandate. The event will also take a more forward looking view on specific monetary policy instruments, rather than only a general (and a bit backward looking) one on the transmission channels of monetary policy to macro and inflation. We analysed how monetary policy can operate (and “normalize”) with a very large balance sheet, what are the unconventional tools and how to react to the next recession if we are still in a low interest rate environment (particularly relevant in the Japanese case), and how negative rates can be used. In addition, we challenged our experts and audience while debating how independence and accountability of Central Banks did or did not weather the crisis and how this plays in for fiscal/monetary coordination.