M-RCBG Senior Fellow-Led Study Group: George Chouliarakis
Thursday, March 31st, 4:00-5:30
Ofer-401
This in-person Study Group is open to those with a Harvard ID.
In the past 12 months, price inflation has been rising at the fastest pace in nearly 40 years and is expected to remain elevated at least in the near-term. The surge in inflation has been broad-based and global - engulfing advanced economies, emerging markets, and developing economies alike – leading several of them to end a long period of monetary easing and endorse less accommodative policies. In turn, tighter global financial conditions are bound to exert pressure on emerging market and developing economy currencies, public finances and sovereign debt, and lead to challenging policy trade-offs.
Is this inflation problem a harbinger of a new era of low growth and economic instability reminiscent of the 1970s? What are the key risks that rising inflation is posing to economic recovery and debt sustainability in emerging market and developing economies? What are the trade-offs that monetary policy authorities are up against? And what policy lessons can they draw from past inflation episodes? Join M-RCBG Senior Fellow George Chouliarakis for a Study Group meeting on the new inflation problem.
George Chouliarakis is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and the Economic Adviser to the Governor of the Bank of Greece. He was Greece’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from February 2015 to July 2019 and Alternate Minister of Finance - responsible for fiscal policy and the sovereign debt – from August 2015 to July 2019. He led for Greece the technical negotiations with the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF that resulted in the country's economic adjustment program in August 2015. He also conducted for Greece the technical negotiations that led to the debt relief agreement of June 2018. He has served as a member of the Eurogroup Working Group, a member of the Board of Directors of the European Stability Mechanism, and a member of the Economic Policy Committee of the OECD. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Warwick. His email is: gchouliarakis@hks.harvard.edu