HKIMR-ECB-BOFIT Joint Conference on “Europe, Asia and the Changing Global Economy”


14 - 15 January 2025


 

On 14 – 15 January 2025, the HKIMR hosted a joint conference with European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT) on “Europe, Asia and the Changing Global Economy”.

The full conference programme can be found here.

Photo 1 Group photo of organisers, speakers, panellists, discussants and moderators for the conference
Front row (from left to right):
Iikka Korhonen, Head of BOFIT, Enoch Fung, Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong Academy of Finance and Executive Director of HKIMR, Philip Lane, Member of the ECB’s Executive Board and Chief Economist of the ECB, Olli Rehn, Governor of the Bank of Finland, Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Darryl Chan, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA, Reza Baqir, Former Governor of Central Bank of Pakistan and Amber Li, Associate Professor of Department of Economics of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

In his welcoming remarks, Darryl Chan, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA, pointed out the challenges facing the global economy, and highlighted the opportunities for growth and cooperation in areas like infrastructure investment, green financing, and the digital economy, which can bring mutual benefits and support sustainable development in Europe and Asia.

Photo 2 Darryl Chan, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA

Olli Rehn, Governor of the Bank of Finland delivered a keynote speech on “Global Economy: Fragmentation, Decoupling, or Slowbalization?” He highlighted challenges and risks of protectionism, geoeconomic fragmentation and the need to defend the rule-based international trade order. Philip Lane, Member of the ECB’s Executive Board and Chief Economist of the ECB presented his view on “The Euro Area Outlook and Monetary Policy” in his keynote speech, which highlighted the considerations for the ECB in forming their growth and inflation outlook and the many challenges facing the economies in the Euro Area.

Photo 3 Olli Rehn, Governor of the Bank of Finland

Photo 4 Philip Lane, Member of the ECB’s Executive Board and Chief Economist of the ECB

The conference had a very distinguished policy panel with Andrew Rose, Yiping Huang, Erik Berglof, Jorge Toledo and Reza Baqir. The panel discussion highlighted the complexities of navigating the challenges in the global economy, particularly in the context of geoeconomic fragmentation and trade protectionism, and explored opportunities of international cooperation.

Policy Panel Discussion: Europe, Asia and the Changing Global EconomyPhoto 5 (from left to right)

Moderator: Iikka Korhonen of BOFIT
Panellists: Andrew Rose of National University of Singapore, Yiping Huang of Peking University, Erik Berglof of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Jorge Toledo of European Union and Reza Baqir of Central Bank of Pakistan

Apart from the policy panel session, 8 high quality research papers were presented in the conference.

Session 1
Photo 6 (from left to right)

Moderator: Michael Cheng of HKMA
Presenter: Han Qiu of Bank for International Settlements
Discussant: Kang Shi of the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Photo 7 (from left to right)

Moderator: Michael Cheng of HKMA
Presenter: Philipp Boeing of Goethe University Frankfurt and ZEW Mannheim
Discussant: Heiwai Tang of Asia Global Institute

Session 2
Photo 8 (from left to right)

Moderator: Giorgio Valente of HKIMR
Presenter: Martin Bodenstein of Federal Reserve Board
Discussant: Boris Hofmann of Bank for International Settlements

Photo 9 (from left to right)

Moderator: Giorgio Valente of HKIMR
Presenter: Gergely Hudecz of European Stability Mechanism
Discussant: Tuuli McCully of BOFIT

Session 3
Photo 10 (from left to right)

Moderator: Matthieu Darracq Pariès of ECB
Presenter: Amber Li of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Discussant: Georgios Georgiadis of ECB

Photo 11 (from left to right)

Moderator: Matthieu Darracq Pariès of ECB
Presenter: Gernot J. Müller of University of Tübingen, CEPR, and CESifo
Discussant: James Yetman of Bank for International Settlements

Session 4
Photo 12 (from left to right)

Moderator: Hongyi Chen of HKIMR
Presenter: Sergio Schmukler of the World Bank
Discussant: Guojun He of the University of Hong Kong

Photo 13 (from left to right)

Moderator: Hongyi Chen of HKIMR
Presenter: Raphael Lam of International Monetary Fund
Discussant: Man Keung Tang of Temasek

The conference attracted more than 120 participants in person from central banks, private sector, academia and international financial institutions, with 43 of them from overseas.

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Last revision date: 23 January 2025