Author: Lara Cornaro
The Response of International and Regional Financial Institutions to COVID 19
The COVID-19 crisis has brought the global economy to its knees, by its intensity, scale, and far-reaching impacts. Developing and emerging economies were most hit, as they suffer from structural constrains impeding their adjustment to the new setting and lack of fiscal space to absorb even partially the shock. Furthermore, the crisis is still among us, and we are not out of the woods, yet. New variants are threatening the back-to-normal journey, inflation is looming, and public finances will be under stress longer than expected. The issue is then, how the global community can bring their support and assistance to distressed developing economies to contain a new wave of insolvency and protracted liquidity problems that threaten economic growth and poverty around the world. The G-20, the IMF, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and all the other international organizations have implemented new COVID-19-relief programs and scaled up their financial support. Allocation of Special Drawing Rights, new lending, and the Debt Service Suspension Initiative are among different initiatives adopted by the global community to help the developing countries. In this context, this webinar aims to assess the impact of the international response to COVID 19 by reviewing:
I- What has been done so far by the international community to help the developing countries cope with the crisis?
II- Do developing countries have new strategies to support and finance their economic recovery?
III- How can we accelerate the developing countries’ fair access to COVID-19 vaccines and treatment for a sound recovery?
IV- What role do international institutions have in helping to lay the ground for an inclusive and sustainable economic growth in developing countries? What are the new missions or changing roles that could be foreseen for the international and regional institutions in the light of this pandemic?
Paving the Way for Greener Central Banks. Current Trends and Future Developments around the Globe
Climate change has quickly become one of the most pressing challenges of our society. Financial actors could play a key role in supporting and fostering a shift towards a low-carbon economy. In this context, central banks could have a primary function in both tackling climate-related risks and the ones related to the transition and, potentially, proactively redirecting resources towards green initiatives. Central banks are indeed exploring how different types of climate-related risks and considerations could be incorporated into their activities. However, this effort is proceeding at a different speed and with a different geometry across the globe. This edited volume aims at shedding light on how central banks and international financial institutions are currently addressing climate change worldwide, with a focus on central banks in the European Union, the United States, Asia, Africa and Latin America, and on the potential role of the International Monetary Fund, sovereign national funds and ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) standards.