Rethinking the Role of Central Banking

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, with high levels of public and private debt in advanced economies and concerns about capital inflows and currency appreciation in emerging markets, central banks are being pulled into new roles. While the current framework has had many practical achievements, the conventional approach to central banking needs to be rethought in the light of lessons learned both before and after the crisis.

On September 14, Global Economy and Development at Brookings hosted a discussion to launch the first report of a new Committee on International Economic and Policy Reform, a group of independent economic experts that includes academics as well as former government and central bank officials. The committee’s goal is to identify areas in which the global economic architecture should be strengthened and to develop solutions for central banking in the post-crisis world that reconcile national interests with broader global interests. The panel included three of the committee members: Brookings Senior Fellow and Cornell University professor Eswar Prasad, University of Chicago professor Raghuram Rajan and visiting professor at Columbia University and former Finance Minister of Chile Andrés Velasco. World Bank Managing Director and former Finance Minister of Indonesia Sri Mulyani Indrawati joined the discussion and Alan Beattie, Financial Times international economy editor, moderated.

After the program, the panelists took audience questions.

Read the Rethinking Central Banking report »