Call for Papers

Negative Euro Area Interest Rates and Spillovers on Western Balkan Central Bank Policies and Instruments

May 4–5, 2017

The Bank of Albania (BoA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are inviting paper submissions for a conference on “Negative Euro Area Interest Rates and Spillovers on Western Balkan Central Bank Policies and Instruments.” The conference, which is sponsored by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Economic Cooperation and Development (SECO), will be held in Tirana, Albania, on Thursday and Friday May 4–5, 2017.

Background

 The low inflation and low interest rates in the euro area represent a challenge for the conduct of monetary policy for the central banks in the Western Balkans, as well as to their financial stability. Despite different monetary policy arrangements, countries in the region (Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia) share similar challenges for monetary policy design and implementation due to financial euroization and similar links to euro area economies.

This conference will provide an opportunity for policy makers and senior officials from Western Balkan central banks to exchange views with each other and with other central banks in the vicinity of the euro area on monetary policy, financial stability, and reserve management challenges arising from negative policy rates in the euro area and the European Central Bank’s asset purchase program. The aim of the conference is to identify the peculiar challenges in these different areas, take stock of the different policy responses, and assess their effects with a view to identifying those that can be considered more effective than others in the given circumstances.

Final Program Agenda

Participant Bios

Agenda

	Thursday, May 4, 2017
Day One	Session 1: Financial Stability  Banks' balance sheet response to the low euro area interest rates in Western Balkan and financial stability issues Effects of negative euro area interest rates on financial euroization and on the design of de-euroization policies The possible role of mcro-prudential policies Presentations from Session 1
	Session 2: FX Reserve Management International experiences with reserve management in the context of low interest rates in the euro area Challenges for reserve management in central banks of Western Balkans Presentations from Session 2
	Friday, May 5, 2017
Day Two	Session 3: Monetary Policy Design and Implementation International experiences with spillover of low interest rate in the vicinity of the euro area Policy response and implementation challenges in fixed exchange rate arrangement regimes Policy response and implementation challenges in flexible exchange rate arrangements with inflation targeting Presentations from Session 3

Submission

The proposals for contribution will be submitted to a review committee composed of representatives of the BoA and the IMF. Please send submissions to ethemeli@bankofalbania.org, rveyrune@imf.org, and gdellavalle@imf.org by March 1, 2017.

Publication

Following the conference, the BoA, in cooperation with the IMF, will prepare a summing up of the main policy messages on addressing most efficiently the common challenges of the central banks in the region, which will be published in the form of a book on the BoA website. Selected papers will be considered for inclusion in this publication.