{
  "title": "Plato & the Incas: Overheard at the IMF’s Annual Meetings",
  "publication": "IMF Blog, October 15, 2015",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2015/10/15/plato-the-incas-overheard-at-the-imfs-annual-meetings",
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  "summary": "Publication: iMFdirect",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Overview",
      "content": "- Publication: iMFdirect\n- Date: October 15, 2015\n- Setting: Summaries of seminars held during the IMF’s Annual Meetings in Lima, Peru.\n- Editors’ approach: Notes and highlights from multiple seminars, emphasizing substantive themes and policy discussion."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Growth",
      "content": "- Key observation: Trouble in emerging markets, a lack of investment, and an uneven global economic recovery weigh on the prospects for growth.\n- Financial inclusion as a growth driver:\n  - “Countries with commitments to financial inclusion have economies that have grown stronger than those who haven’t,” said Alfred Hannig, Executive Director of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.\n  - Empirical finding cited: Countries with financial inclusion targets have grown 13.4 percent between 2011 and 2014, compared to 8.5 percent for those without.\n  - Definition expanded: Financial inclusion now includes payments, savings, and investment in addition to credit.\n- Risks highlighted:\n  - Financial inclusion can entail financial risks if credit grows too quickly and new lenders are not properly supervised.\n- Structural reforms:\n  - Structural reforms (deregulation, education investment, etc.) can both boost growth and reduce inequality with appropriate political and policy choices.\n  - Strong, transparent, and accountable economic institutions are essential to manage global economic volatility and new policy frontiers.\n  - Capacity building and training are central, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean.\n- Commodity price volatility:\n  - Volatile commodity prices (oil and metals) complicate growth and fiscal policy.\n  - Policy implication: Save in boom years to spend in bust years."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Climate change and energy pricing",
      "content": "- Core theme: Policy choices to address climate change, energy pricing, and energy subsidies are pressing and country-specific.\n- Leadership message: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde emphasized collective responsibility in addressing climate change.\n- Policy pressure: Advanced economies may not be taking full advantage of low oil prices to reform energy prices and subsidies.\n- Direct exhortation: “Finance Minister, go home, price it right, tax it smart, do it now,” said Lagarde.\n- Framing: Energy price design must reconcile climate objectives and domestic policy realities."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Finance and financial stability",
      "content": "- Central banking debate:\n  - Central bankers reflected on lessons learned and uncertainties about the duration of low interest rates in advanced economies.\n  - Debate over policy focus: How much to prioritize price stability versus broadening focus to systemic financial risks.\n  - The case for using monetary policy to contain risks to financial stability—“leaning against the wind”—remains contested, with views ranging from supportive to skeptical to seeing it as a last line of defense.\n- Interaction between inclusion and stability:\n  - Evidence presented that financial inclusion has a positive impact on growth but may negatively affect financial stability if growth in credit is rapid and supervision is weak.\n  - New technology expands services and products but introduces new risks.\n  - Regulatory approach advocated: “Let a variety of players enter, and ban only those we are certain will do harm,” said Raghuram Rajan, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Notable quotations and historical aside",
      "content": "- Plato’s framing: Knowledge requires giving an account rather than mere opinion; seminars would have made Plato proud.\n- Christine Lagarde on climate urgency: “If we chicken out of this we'll all turn into chickens and will be fried, grilled, toasted and roasted.”\n- Historical note: There is evidence that the once long-prosperous and productive Inca economy had no market system and no money.\n\nWritten by: Jacqueline Deslauriers. Contributors: Jacqueline Deslauriers, Lika Gueye, Julia Gutierrez, and Peter Kunzel.\n\n---\n\n\n References\n\n- emerging markets\n- global economic recovery\n- financial inclusion\n- economic growth\n- commodity prices\n- oil and metals\n- fiscal policy\n- Structural reforms\n- capacity building\n- structural reforms\n- climate change\n- energy pricing\n- energy subsidies\n- climate change objectives\n- energy prices and subsidies\n- low- income countries\n- financial system\n- monetary policy\n- financial inclusion\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2015/10/15/plato-the-incas-overheard-at-the-imfs-annual-meetings"
    }
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    "Authors: iMFdirect",
    "Published: October 15, 2015",
    "Publication: iMFdirect",
    "Date: October 15, 2015",
    "Setting: Summaries of seminars held during the IMF’s Annual Meetings in Lima, Peru.",
    "Editors’ approach: Notes and highlights from multiple seminars, emphasizing substantive themes and policy discussion.",
    "Key observation: Trouble in emerging markets, a lack of investment, and an uneven global economic recovery weigh on the prospects for growth.",
    "Financial inclusion as a growth driver:",
    "Risks highlighted:",
    "Structural reforms:",
    "Commodity price volatility:",
    "Core theme: Policy choices to address climate change, energy pricing, and energy subsidies are pressing and country-specific.",
    "Leadership message: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde emphasized collective responsibility in addressing climate change.",
    "Policy pressure: Advanced economies may not be taking full advantage of low oil prices to reform energy prices and subsidies.",
    "Direct exhortation: “Finance Minister, go home, price it right, tax it smart, do it now,” said Lagarde.",
    "Framing: Energy price design must reconcile climate objectives and domestic policy realities.",
    "Central banking debate:",
    "Interaction between inclusion and stability:",
    "Plato’s framing: Knowledge requires giving an account rather than mere opinion; seminars would have made Plato proud.",
    "Christine Lagarde on climate urgency: “If we chicken out of this we'll all turn into chickens and will be fried, grilled, toasted and roasted.”",
    "Historical note: There is evidence that the once long-prosperous and productive Inca economy had no market system and no money.",
    "[emerging markets](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2015/POL092915B.htm)",
    "[global economic recovery](http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2015/100915.htm)",
    "[financial inclusion](http://www.imf.org/external/POS_Meetings/SeminarDetails.aspx?SeminarId=68)",
    "[economic growth](http://blogs.imf.org/2015/10/06/the-quest-for-robust-and-synchronized-growth/)",
    "[commodity prices](http://www.imf.org/external/POS_Meetings/SeminarDetails.aspx?SeminarId=76)",
    "[oil and metals](http://blogs.imf.org/2015/09/14/metals-and-oil-a-tale-of-two-commodities/)",
    "[fiscal policy](http://blogs.imf.org/2015/10/07/how-to-manage-the-commodity-roller-coaster/)",
    "[Structural reforms](http://www.imf.org/external/POS_Meetings/SeminarDetails.aspx?SeminarId=74)",
    "[capacity building](http://www.imf.org/external/am/2015/mmedia/view.aspx?vid=4541024767001)",
    "[structural reforms](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2013/03/basics.htm)",
    "[climate change](http://www.imf.org/external/POS_Meetings/SeminarDetails.aspx?SeminarId=66)",
    "[energy pricing](http://www.imf.org/external/POS_Meetings/SeminarDetails.aspx?SeminarId=72)",
    "[energy subsidies](http://blogs.imf.org/2015/05/18/global-energy-subsidies-are-big-about-us5-trillion-big/)",
    "[climate change objectives](http://blogs.imf.org/2014/09/17/carbon-pricing-good-for-you-good-for-the-planet/)",
    "[energy prices and subsidies](http://blogs.imf.org/2015/05/18/act-local-solve-global-the-5-3-trillion-energy-subsidy-problem/)",
    "[low- income countries](http://www.imf.org/external/POS_Meetings/SeminarDetails.aspx?SeminarId=78)",
    "[financial system](http://blogs.imf.org/2015/10/07/global-financial-stability-vulnerabilities-legacies-and-policy-challenges/)",
    "[monetary policy](http://www.imf.org/external/POS_Meetings/SeminarDetails.aspx?SeminarId=77)",
    "[financial inclusion](http://blogs.imf.org/2015/09/15/the-more-the-merrier-what-happens-when-more-people-use-financial-services/)"
  ],
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