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International Cooperation in Times of Global Crisis: Views from G20 countries

A high-level economic conference on the key current global financial and economic policy challenges, bringing together academics and policymakers from most G20 countries to identify policy implications for Europe, Asia and the Americas, and action lines for G20.

Event summary here

Session 1: A lost decade?

The global economy is facing more difficult challenges than what was earlier contemplated. A new pattern of current accounts is emerging, with the US deficit stabilizing while the Chinese surplus is declining and new surpluses are being accumulated by oil producers. At the same time advanced countries are experiencing protracted public and private sector deleveraging while emerging economies are having difficulties compensating the loss of external demand. What can G20 members do to steer economy towards balanced recovery?

Chair

Jean Pisani-Ferry, Director, Bruegel

Speakers

  • Jörg Decressin, Deputy Director, Research Department, IMF here
  • Alexei Moiseev, Deputy Finance Minister, Russia- presentation here
  • Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva, Deputy Governor, Banco Central do Brazil here
  • Jun Saito, Special Advisor, Cabinet Office, Japan- presentation here

Session 2: How many international lenders of last resort?

The Asian crisis of 1997, the global crisis of 2008 and the Eurozone crisis of 2010 have all revived the question of the adequate schemes for international liquidity provision. Since 2008, the Federal Reserve has played a crucial role in providing liquidity in dollars. In the case of the Eurozone, it was clear from the onset that the IMF resources were not large enough and could only supplement a regional scheme. Whether the resulting combination of the regional and the multilateral level will be resilient to shocks and surprises is still uncertain. Thus the questions remain: is there a need to ex-ante combine the different tools of international liquidity provision in times of crisis, and if so, how to efficiently proceed? How the G20 can help build the process?

Chair

Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Professor, Paris School of Economics

Speakers

  • Eduardo Fernández-Arias Senior Advisor, Inter-American Development Bank - presentation here
  • Barry Ickes, Acting Head, Department of Economics, Pennsylvania State University
  • Francesco Papadia, Non Resident Scholar, Bruegel - presentation here
  • Oleg Vyugin, Chairman, Board of Directors, MDM Bank
  • Beatrice Weder di Mauro, Professor, Johannes-Gutenberg-University of Mainz - presentation here

Session 3: From debt to equity: the changing patterns of international financing

The theoretical neutrality of the financing mode (equity or debt) has repeatedly been put into question by the financial crisis of the past 20 years. Debt crises are indeed considered as more harmful than crashes in stock prices, although the two can easily be combined. In parallel, new needs for equity financing arise, in particular those related to climate change, while new capital requirements are disincentivizing banks and insurance funds to hold equity.

Chair

David Vines, Professor, Oxford University

Speakers

  • Martin Gilman, Director, Centre for Advanced Studies, Higher School of Economics
  • Eduardo Levy-Yeyati, Professor, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, and Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution - presentation here
  • Andres Sutt, Senior Adviser to the CEO, European Financial Stability Facility - presentation here
  • Lúcio Vinhas de Souza, Managing Director and Sovereign Chief Economist, Moody's Investors Service
  • Chang-Hyun Yun, President, Korea Institute of Finance- presentation here

Session 4: Energy and natural resources in a globalised economy

Oil and natural gas production in non-OECD countries has reached a new record in 2011 and the Brent oil price is constantly above $100. Consequently, fossil fuel bills of OECD countries and fossil fuel rents of non-OECD countries remain huge causing significant financial flows and current account imbalances. At the same time, major importers such as the European Union, the US and China have started to diversity their consumption towards renewable energy sources and/or domestic natural gas. This has the potential to strongly affect some exporter countries external position over the medium to long term - and might even affect their investment decisions today. Against the background of these politically induced changes in the global energy supply structure some form of energy policy coordination might be necessary. Otherwise, discretionary national energy policy decisions might put at risk business investment decisions in other countries, ultimately harming global energy supply. We want to discuss how the G20 could contribute to the proper outline of such a framework? In the end, is it a matter of cooperation or competition between countries?

Chair

Sergei Guriev, Rector, New Economic School

Speakers

  • Rabah Arezki, Economist, IMF
  • Vladimir Drebentsov, Vice-President and Chief Economist, BP Russia - presentation here
  • Louis Skyner, Leading Legal Counsel, Statoil Russia
  • Christof van Agt, Senior Researcher, Clingendael International Energy Programme - presentation here

Session 5: Can the G-20 escape diminishing returns?

The G20 had a very strong start but its effectiveness has been constantly declining since the 2009 London summit. Considerable effort was invested in macroeconomic discussion but little was delivered in the end. Ambitious plans for reforming global financial safety nets or the international monetary system did not result in meaningful achievements. More was done in the field of financial regulation though this was actually more the result of work done at the FSB than the effect of G-20 decisions. At the same time, problems that emerged in G20 governance have not been solved and this hinders both its legitimacy and its effectiveness.

Chair

Ignazio Angeloni, Director General, Financial Stability, ECB and coordinator and contributor, G20 monitor

Speakers

  • Thomas Bernes, Distinguished Fellow, CIGI
  • Sergei Karaganov, Dean, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, Higher School of Economics
  • Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Global Economy and Development Program, Brooking Institution
  • John Kirton, Co-founder and Director of G8 Research Group, University of Toronto - presentation here and written remarks here
  • Mark Thirlwell, Acting Director, G20 Studies Centre, Lowy Institute for International Policy

Keynote speech

Pier Carlo Padoan, Chief Economist and Deputy Secretary-General,OECD - speech here

Session 6: A global level playing field?

While trade liberalisation on a multilateral scale has been in a standstill for more than ten years, the process of global integration has continued thanks to bilateral and regional initiatives and the gradual approximation of regulations. Product standards, financial reporting standards, competition rules are today much more harmonised de facto than they were ten years ago. Yet important differences remain, which occasionally create tensions, and there is no strong multilateral framework to ensure that commitments taken on at national level are lasting. What has been achieved? Can the world economy continue with this loose framework?

Chair

Natalya Volchkova, Policy Director at the Center for Economic and Financial Research, New Economic School

Speakers

  • Martyn Davies, Chief Executive Officer, Frontier Advisory, Johannesburg
  • Lionel Fontagné, Professor, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris School of Economics- presentation here
  • Arancha González Laya, Chief of Staff, Office of the Director‐General, WTO and G20 Sherpa, WTO
  • Matthew Goodman, William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for Strategic and International Studies
  • Onur Sazak, Research and Academic Affairs Manager, Istanbul Policy Center- presentation here

Conference organised by Bruegel, Brussels, CEPII, Paris, Higher School of Economics, Moscow and New Economic School, Moscow.

Practical details

  • Venue: Higher School of Economics, Moscow
  • Dates: 18-19 October 2012
  • Contact: [email protected]

Video

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Photos

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