Inflation has hit exactly 2% just seventeen times in the Euro Area’s 308-month history. However, it has hovered within a range of 1.5% to 2.4% about 42% of the time and now, inflation has settled back into this desirable territory. A monetary policy that remains tight for too long risks causing inflation to undershoot its target. Speed is of the essence.

More about our speakers and chair:

Mário Centeno is the Governor of Banco de Portugal and member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank since July 2020.  He served as President of the Eurogroup and Chair of the Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism, and for over four years he was Finance Minister of Portugal. An experienced economist, Mr Centeno has held several positions in Banco de Portugal, where he started his career in 1993. He has a strong academic background with a PhD in Economics, from Harvard University, and has published several academic papers. 

Silvana Tenreyro is Professor in Economics at the London School of Economics. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 2002 and an MSc in Economics from Harvard University in 1999. She is Director and Board Member of the Review of Economic Studies and serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of the European Economic Association, the Journal of Monetary Economics and the Economic Journal. She was an external member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee from July 2017 to July 2023

It's the economy: A lecture by Mário Centeno, Governor of Banco de Portugal

A new Cold War is underway. While the first Cold War was dominated by the threat of nuclear conflict, the new front line is economic and financial, but still dominated by technology. Who controls its future will help decide the outcome of the geopolitical struggle between China and the US.

Since the end of the Second World War, the US dollar has been the global reserve currency, which has ensured American dominance of the world economy. But no longer. More than a hundred countries are developing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), digital equivalents to cash that will utterly transform how we do business at home and abroad. China was the first country to recognise the potential of this new money. The West's media focused on the new currency's role in China's surveillance state, creating widespread concern about all CBDCs. But they have largely overlooked a more important aspect of its existence: as a tool through which to 'de-dollarise' the developing world at the speed of light. The presentation will discuss how CBDCs are going to impact all of our futures in ways that most of us have failed to even consider. If the West is to compete, it needs to act fast to develop its own global digital currencies that reflect the values of liberal democracies.

Speaker: Brunello Rosa (@brunello_rosa) is a financial economist and geopolitical strategist who advises market participants, policy-makers and institutions. He is the CEO and head of research of Rosa & Roubini Associates, a visiting professor at City St George’s, University of London, and Senior Executive Fellow at the School of Management of Bocconi University in Italy. He is the coordinator of the executive education course in Global Macroeconomic Challenges at LSE, where he has taught in various capacities for the last twenty years. Having previously worked at the Bank of England, he is an active member of the Chief Economists Advisory Board of the European Investment Bank. More recently he has advised several institutions, including the UK Parliament, on the geopolitical aspects of CBDCs.

Chair: Ricardo Reis (@R2Rsquared) is the A.W. Phillips Professor of Economics at LSE. Recent honors include the 2022 Carl Menger prize, the 2021 Yrjo Jahnsson medal, election for the Econometric Society in 2019, the 2017 BdF/TSE junior prize, and the 2016 Bernacer prize. He is an academic consultant at the Bank of England, the Riksbank, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, directs the Centre for Macroeconomics, and serves on the council or as an advisor of multiple organizations. He has published widely on macroeconomics, including both monetary and fiscal policy, inflation and business cycles. Professor Reis received his PhD from Harvard University, and was previously on the faculties at Columbia University and Princeton University.

It's the economy: A lecture by Mário Centeno, Governor of Banco de Portugal

Centre For Macroeconomics

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