The Latin American Network of Central Banks and Finance Ministries is a discussion group whose permanent members include the Central Banks and Finance Ministries of Latin America. The IDB Research Department is the technical secretariat for the Network. The creation of the Network in 1995 is consistent with the IDB's goal of becoming a source of ideas as much as financing.
The purpose of the group is to promote a high-level policy discussion on macroeconomic and financial issues and foster personal bonds among the Central Banks and Finance Ministries of Latin America and the Caribbean and between high-level policymakers from these institutions and the IDB research team.
This interaction with the region's policymakers allows the IDB to remain abreast of the main policy concerns in Latin America, thereby helping to set its research agenda and focus its policy advice.
The main activity has been a biannual seminar held in the IDB headquarters in Washington. Starting in 2005 an additional regional meeting was added to this Network, aimed specifically at representatives from Central America and the Caribbean.
Topics covered in previous meetings range from long run structural policies -- such as trade integration and reforms -- to short run macroeconomic policy. Monetary and exchange rate policies have been discussed on several ocassions, in particular the optimality of fixed and flexible exchange rate regimes, inflation targeting regimes and the possibility of monetary coordination within the region. Fiscal policy has also figured prominently, including discussions on fiscal sustainability, budgetary institutions and public debt strategy. Novel initiatives to deal with international financial turmoil have also been adressed. One example of these initiatives is the discussion of recent proposals for issuing state contingent debt instruments. Finally, and taking advantage of research conducted by RES for the 2005 IPES, recent meetings have also covered aspects of the domestic banking sector, in such aspects as the roles of foreign and public banks and financial dollarization. |
