Selected Issues in Macroeconomic Diagnostics

Source details

Target Audience:
- Officials from central banks and ministries of finance or economy who are directly involved in diagnosing the state of the macroeconomy and making projections.
Qualifications:
- Participants are expected to have an advanced degree in economics or equivalent experience, good quantitative skills, and proficiency in the use of Microsoft Excel.

Purpose:
- Strengthen participants' ability to comprehensively assess a country's macroeconomic situation.
Scope of diagnosis:
- Current state of the economy.
- Stance of fiscal and monetary policy.
- Financial stability.
- Exchange rate.
- Vulnerabilities in the different sectors.
- Medium-term outlook, especially the sustainability of public and external debt.
Approach:
- Emphasizes practical tools for use in day-to-day macroeconomic analysis.
- Relies on case studies relevant to the region where the course is given to illustrate application of tools and contribution to the policymaking process.

Upon completion of the course, participants should be able to:

Analyze potential output, calculate output gaps, and diagnose the outlook for the economy.
Assess the stance of current fiscal, monetary, exchange rate, and financial policies.
Assess macro-financial linkages, including through the analysis of financial sector soundness indicators.
Assess the medium-term prospects of the economy, especially the sustainability of public and external debt.
Identify possible external and internal economic risks and vulnerabilities to economic growth and develop policies to address them.