The COVID-19 inflation episode: Lessons from emerging markets

A summary of the papers presented at this conference is available here.

Emerging market economies, like advanced economies, suffered a strong increase in inflation at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but their policymakers raised interest rates much sooner. In contrast to earlier episodes, emerging markets have proven impressively resilient.

On Monday, April 22, a conference from the Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy considered the recent inflation episodes in emerging markets and lessons from policymakers’ response. Three papers were presented, each with a regional focus: emerging Asia (Antonio Fatás of INSEAD), emerging Europe (Refet Gürkaynak of Bilkent University), and emerging Latin America (Juan Pablo Medina of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez). Each presentation was followed by a discussant’s response and a moderated conversation with attendees.

Viewers asked questions of the panelists by emailing [email protected] and on X/Twitter using the hashtag #EmergingMarkets.

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