High-Level Seminar: Implementing Inflation Targets

IMF Seminars, January 1, 1901

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Canonical URL: High-Level Seminar: Implementing Inflation Targets

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Bibliographic details

Published: January 1, 1901

Event overview and objectives

Sponsored by the IMF Institute; held at IMF Headquarters, Washington, D.C., Multipurpose Room, B-702.
Dates: March 20-21, 2000.
Participation: Participation by invitation only.
Purpose: To examine issues arising from the shift toward explicit inflation targets, including:
- Reforms countries need before establishing an inflation-targeting framework.
- Appropriate monetary policy under monetary and inflation targeting.
- Country experiences with inflation targeting in Canada, Israel, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Brazil.
Conference materials: Conference papers and brief biographical information on each participant were to be posted as they became available; papers noted as draft and unedited.
Associated publication: Inflation Targeting in Practice: Strategic and Operational Issues and Application to Emerging Market Economies, edited by Mario I. Blejer, Alain Ize, Alfredo Leone, and Sérgio Werlang.

Key topics and analytical themes

Historical context: Followed the high-inflation years of the late 1970s and early 1980s and the subsequent global trend toward relative price stability attributed partly to adoption of inflation targets.
Policy design and implementation:
- Preconditions and institutional reforms required prior to adopting inflation targeting.
- Operational aspects of monetary policy under an inflation-targeting regime, including considerations related to the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates.
- Interaction of inflation targeting with exchange rate regimes (including issues under a crawling band).
Case studies and transitional experiences:
- Industrial-country experiences: Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Israel.
- Emerging-market transitions: Mexico, Brazil.

Conference agenda highlights (sessions, times, chairs, presenters, discussants, and materials)

Monday, March 20
- 9:00 a.m.-9:15 a.m.: Welcoming Remarks -- Mohsin S. Khan (IMF)
- 9:15 a.m.-9:45 a.m.: Opening Remarks -- Stanley Fischer (IMF)
- 10:00 a.m.-11:15 a.m. — Monetary Rules
- Chair: Michael Mussa
- Speaker: Bennett McCallum (Carnegie-Mellon University)
- Discussant: Vincent Reinhart (Federal Reserve Board)
- Materials: Monetary Rules (180 k pdf file); Background Paper: Theoretical Analysis Regarding a Zero Lower Bound on Nominal Interest Rates (180 k pdf file)
- 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m. — Monetary Policy Under Inflation Targeting
- Speaker: Lars Svensson (Stockholm University)
- Discussant: Timothy Lane (IMF)
- 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. — Inflation Targeting in Canada
- Chair: Tomás Baliño (IMF)
- Speaker: Charles Freedman (Bank of Canada)
- 3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. — Inflation Targeting in New Zealand
- Speaker: David Archer (Reserve Bank of New Zealand)
- 4:15 p.m.-5:15 p.m. — Inflation Targeting in the United Kingdom
- Chair: Mohsin Khan (IMF)
- Speaker: Andrew Haldane (Bank of England)
- Materials: (71 k pdf file); Background Paper: Targeting Inflation: The UK in Retrospect (46 k pdf file)

Tuesday, March 21
- 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. — Inflation Targeting in Israel
- Chair: Peter Montiel (IMF)
- Speaker: Leonardo Leiderman (Bank of Israel and Tel Aviv University)
- Materials: Inflation Targeting in Israel (422 k pdf file); Background Paper: Inflation Targeting Under a Crawling Band Exchange Rate Regime: Lessons from Israel
- 10:15 a.m.-11:15 a.m. — Inflation Targeting in Mexico
- Chair: Claudio Loser (IMF)
- Speakers: Agustin Carstens (IMF); Alejandro Werner (Bank of Mexico)
- Materials: Background Paper: Mexico's Monetary Policy Framework Under a Floating Exchange Rate Regime (422 k pdf file)
- 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. — Inflation Targeting in Brazil
- Speaker: Sérgio Werlang (Central Bank of Brazil)
- Materials: (433 k pdf file); Background Paper: Issues in the Adoption of an Inflation Targeting Framework in Brazil
- 12:15 p.m.-12:45 p.m.: Conclusions on Inflation Targeting
- 12:45 p.m.-1:00 p.m.: Closing Remarks; Presentation by Eduardo Aninat (IMF)

Procedural notes and contact

Contact: conference@imf.org
Technical note: Use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view PDF files; tips for using PDF files provided.

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References