Seminar on The Statistical Implications of Inflation Targeting, Washington, D.C., February 28

Preliminary Agenda

Proceedings of the seminar, published in September 2002

IMF Seminars, Conferences, and Workshops

IMF Statistical Topics

Seminar on The Statistical Implications of Inflation Targeting
Washington, D.C., February 28–March 1, 2002
International Monetary Fund

In recent years, macroeconomic policy formulation has moved to more explicit use of statistics. A prominent example is inflation targeting, the monetary policy framework that is being adopted by a growing number of countries. While many of the conceptual aspects of inflation targeting have been studied, there has been little attention to the statistical issues: which statistics are needed? What does it take to compile them? And what is the role of the public sector, including the IMF, in encouraging good practice in compilation and use?

Monetary policy committees, rather than focusing exclusively on money and credit aggregates, look increasingly at market-based statistics, for instance at asset prices, and market-derived implicit inflation forecasts. Such data are at present not integrated into the IMF's typical data framework. This seminar provided an opportunity for statistical agencies and central banks to explore issues of common interest in this regard.

Preliminary Agenda


*Thursday, February 28*
9:15 a.m.–9:30 a.m.	Opening Remarks by Horst Köhler, Managing Director, IMF

9:30–11:15 a.m.	Session 1: Round Table: Information Requirements for Inflation Targeting

	Malcolm Knight, Senior Deputy Governor, Bank of Canada Pali J. Lehohla, Statistician General, Statistics South Africa Cyd Amador, Director of Research, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Svante Öberg, Director General, Statistics Sweden Glenn Stevens, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia Chair: Carol S. Carson, Director, Statistics Department, IMF

11:15 a.m.	Coffee Break

11:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.	Session II: Defining and Measuring the Target

	Amanda Rowlatt, Chief Economist, Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom Svein Longva, Director General, Statistics Norway Vítor Gaspar, Research Director General, European Central Bank Pablo García, Acting Chief Economist, Central Bank of Chile Adriaan Bloem, Chief of Real Sector Division, Statistics Department, IMF Chair: Paul Cheung, Chief Statistician, Department of Statistics, Singapore

1:15 p.m.	Luncheon by Invitation

3:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.	Session III: Deriving Measures of Inflation and Inflation Expectations from the Market Data

	Roger Clews, Head of Monetary Instruments and Markets Division, Bank of England Meir Sokoler, Deputy Governor, Bank of Israel Gustavo Bussinger, Director of Research, Research Department, Banco Central do Brasil Tamim Bayoumi, Chief, World Economic Studies Division, Research Department, IMF Vincent Reinhart, Director, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Chair: Mohsin Khan, Director, IMF Institute

4:30 p.m.	Coffee Break

4:45–5:45 p.m.	Discussion Chair: Carol S. Carson, Director, Statistics Department, IMF

6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.	Reception

*Friday, March 1*
9:15 a.m.–10:45 a.m.	Session IV: Implications for the IMF

	Armida San José, Chief, Financial Institutions II Division, Statistics Department, IMF Edgar Ayales, Chief, Financial Institutions I Division, Statistics Department, IMF Oldrich Dedek, Vice-Governor, Czech National Bank Masahiko Takeda, Assistant Director, European I Department, IMF Chair: Glenn Stevens, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia

10:45 a.m.	Coffee Break

11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.	Session V: Discussion and Taking the Agenda Forward

	Carol S. Carson, Director, Statistics Department, IMF Chair: Claudio Loser, Director, Western Hemisphere Department, IMF