Japan-based Graduate Students Enjoy Mock Surveillance at IMF Training Program

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International Monetary Fund
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Press Officer: Yuko Maeda
Tel: 81-(0)3-3597-6719
Email: oapmedia@imf.org

The event was held on January 10, 2020, in Tokyo, Japan, and organized by the IMF Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (OAP) in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The session was the highlight of the 8th Macroeconomist Training Program (MTP).
More than 30 youths, mainly graduate students from Asia, Africa and Europe, acted as economists and presented macroeconomic policy advice for Brazil, Italy and South Korea at a mock surveillance exercise.

The two-day training convened 21 students at the JICA Tokyo Center for lectures and case studies.
A retired IMF economist, Jerald Schiff, provided an overview of the IMF’s macroeconomic framework and its application to the case studies of Turkey and Mongolia.
For the first time, the lecture was telecast live to Hiroshima University where 14 graduate students of Prof. Makoto Kakinaka participated remotely.
Lectures covered the Fund’s economic analysis framework, known as the Financial Programming and Policy (FPP) framework, and its application to bilateral surveillance.

Participants were grouped into 5 different teams, each tasked to analyze the economy of one of three countries and to work overnight to formulate policy advice.
On the second day, the five teams presented group policy advice and engaged in discussions.
Two teams each worked on Brazil and Italy, presenting differing recommendations:
- For Brazil (noted as having accumulated high government debt): one team recommended cutting pension funds for better debt sustainability.
- Another team on Brazil advised more fiscal stimulus to support economic growth and tax revenue.
The Hiroshima team presented its case study on Korea remotely.

Participants valued the opportunity to emulate IMF economists and to learn practical assessment approaches:
- Bastien Guilleminot-Simon (France, University of Tokyo): “I really enjoyed the lectures on financial programming design, as this is a great insight into IMF's way of looking at the economy.”
- Quang Thanh Tran (Vietnam, Tohoku University): “I learned a lot about the assessment process based on macroeconomic indicators,” and described learning where to start when faced with a table full of data.

The Macroeconomist Training Program is an OAP initiative to raise youth understanding of the IMF’s work and improve knowledge of economic analysis and policy advice.
OAP previously organized seven such training courses, from which more than 140 students from 26 different countries benefitted.
The training course serves as an introductory course to the IMF’s online courses offered by the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development (ICD).
The next training program is scheduled to run in early March.

8TH MACROECONOMIST TRAINING PROGRAM
- 8TH MACROECONOMIST TRAINING PROGRAM (Markdown version)
- 8TH MACROECONOMIST TRAINING PROGRAM (PDF)
PROGRAM AGENDA
- PROGRAM AGENDA (Markdown version)
- PROGRAM AGENDA (PDF)