Conference "Quo vadis, Europe? How to achieve growth in high debt environment?"

Latvijas Banka will host a conference on the impact of high debt level on economic growth

On 28 October 2015 Latvijas Banka will host its annual conference on economy where the discussion on the impact of high debt level on the economic growth, one of the most important issues for the global and euro area economy, will be continued.

At the conference "Quo vadis, Europe? How to achieve growth in high debt environment?" academics and economic policy implementers will analyse the public debt growth from the historic and academic point of view and discuss the impact of high public debt levels on monetary policy.

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Short Summary of the Latvijas Banka's Conference 28.10.2015 (ENG) 

Opening of the conference, Ilmārs Rimšēvičs, Governor, Latvijas Banka

Panel Discussion I. Rising public debts: Historical and academic perspective

• Historical experience: do higher debts translate into higher income levels?
• When and how fiscal expansion starts to become ineffective – the role of financial markets and external pressure in general
• Are current levels of debt in Europe sustainable (taking into account the fundamentals, such as demographics, etc.)?

Luis A.V. Catão, Senior Economist, the International Monetary Fund and Joint Vienna Institute

Thomas Grennes, Professor of Economics Emeritus, North Carolina State University

Kenichi Ueda, Associate Professor, the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo

Moderator: John O'Donnell, Journalist, Reuters

Panel discussion II. What challenges do high public debts pose to monetary policy?

• Compatibility of a single monetary policy with decentralised fiscal policies
• The impact of high public debt on the monetary policy transmission mechanism
• Crisis responses of fiscal and monetary policies and their mutual inter-dependence

Ivan Mikloš, Member of Parliament of the Slovak Republic, former Minister of Finance

Peter Praet, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank

Ilmārs Rimšēvičs, Governor, Latvijas Banka

Tuomas Saarenheimo, Permanent Under-Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Finland

Moderator: Niels H. Bünemann, Finance Commentator and Correspondent, TV2 Danmark