High-Level Conference on Latin America

Monday, June 1, 2015

Opening Remarks by David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director, IMF

David Lipton assumed the position of First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund in 2011. Before joining the Fund, he was Special Assistant to the President, and served as Senior Director for International Economic Affairs at the National Economic Council and National Security Council at the White House. Previously, Mr. Lipton was a Managing Director at Citi. Prior to joining Citi in May 2005, he was at Moore Capital Management for five years and, before that he spent a year at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Lipton served in the Clinton administration at the Treasury Department from 1993 to 1998, including as Assistant Secretary and Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Before that, he was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center of Scholars. From 1989 to 1992, he worked as economic adviser to the governments of Russia, Poland, and Slovenia. Mr. Lipton began his career with eight years on the IMF staff. He has a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University in 1982 and a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1975.

Opening Remarks

I. Today's Global Economic Landscape: Implications for Latin America

As global economic conditions continue to shift, countries in Latin America confront increasing challenges. How will a protracted decline in commodity prices affect the region? What will be the spillovers from the U.S. economic recovery and the normalization of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy? Are there risks of financial instability to worry about, following an extended period of strong credit growth and record bond issuance? And what policies are best suited to cope with the current challenges and revive economic activity in a less benign external environment?

Moderator: Alejandro Werner, Director, Western Hemisphere Department, IMF

Alejandro Werner assumed his current position as Director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in January 2013. A Mexican citizen, Mr. Werner has had distinguished careers in the public and private sectors as well as in academia. Most recently, he served as Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico from Dec. 2006 until August 2010, was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid Spain (from August 2010-July 2011), and Head of Corporate and Investment banking at BBVA-Bancomer (from August 2011 until end-2012). Previously he was Director of Economic Studies at the Bank of Mexico and professor at ITAM. He has published widely. Mr. Werner was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007. Mr. Werner received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.

Panelists:

Charles Collyns, Chief Economist and Managing Director, IIF

Charles Collyns is Managing Director and Chief Economist at the IIF. Prior to joining the IIF, Mr. Collyns served as Assistant Secretary for International Finance at U.S. Treasury, a post he held February 2010 to July 2013. Previously, Mr. Collyns served as Deputy Director of the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where he headed the team responsible for the World Economic Outlook report. Prior to joining the Research Department in 2006, he held a number of other positions at the IMF, including holding responsibility for its work on Japan from 1997 to 2001, the United States from 2001 to 2003, and Brazil from 2004 to 2006. Mr. Collyns received a Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University and a bachelor's degree from Cambridge University.

Arminio Fraga, Former President, Central Bank of Brazil

Arminio Fraga is the founding partner at Gavea Investimentos, an investment management firm he founded in August, 2003, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Mr. Fraga was the Chairman of the Board, BM&F Bovespa, Brazil’s securities, commodities and derivatives exchange, from April 2009 to April 2013, and was the President of the Central Bank of Brazil from March 1999 to December 2002.
From 1993 until his appointment as governor of the Central Bank, he was managing director of Soros Fund Management in New York. From 1991 to 1992, he was the director responsible for international affairs at the Central Bank of Brazil. Earlier in his career, he held positions with Salomon Brothers and Garantia Investment Bank.
Mr. Fraga has taught at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, the Graduate School of Economics at Getulio Vargas Foundation, the School of International Affairs at Columbia University and the Wharton School.
He is a member of the Group of Thirty and of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the boards of several NGOs. Mr. Fraga has published widely in the areas of international finance, macroeconomics, and monetary policy.
Mr. Fraga earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 1985, and his BA/MA in Economics from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, in 1981.

Mario Blejer, Former Governor, Central Bank of Argentina

Mario Blejer is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Argentina (2002) and was Director of the Centre for Central Banking Studies and Advisor to the Governor of the Bank of England. He worked in the IMF more than 20 years retiring as Senior Advisor in the Asian Department.. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University of Chicago and a M.A. from Hebrew University. He currently serves as Deputy Chairman at Banco Hipotecario, one of Argentina’s largest commercial banks. He is also the President of Foro PAIS, a think-tank that promotes Argentina's positioning as a guarantor of Food Security for Argentina and the world. In addition to this, he is Board Director at IRSA, Argentina's largest and most diversified real estate company with interests in shopping centers, office buildings, residential developments and land reserves. Mr. Blejer has been Professor of Economics at the Hebrew University, at New York University, at Boston University, and at Central European University in Budapest. He has published numerous articles and books.

Guillermo Ortiz, Former Governor, Central Bank of Mexico

Guillermo Ortiz is currently Chairman of the Advisory Board of Grupo Financiero Banorte-Ixe. He was Chairman of the Board of Grupo Financiero Banorte from 2010 to December 2014. He was Governor of Banco de Mexico from January 1998 to December 2009, he also served as Secretary of Finance and Public Credit in the Mexican Federal Government (from December 1994 to December 1997). Prior to these positions he served as Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit from 1988 to 1994, where he was President of the Bank Privatization Committee. He also was an Executive Director at the IMF (1984-1988) and Manager, as well as, Deputy Manager in the Economic Research Department of the Bank of Mexico (1977-1984). In addition, he served in the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. In 2006 he has appointed to the Board of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), where he was elected Chairman of the Board in 2009. He is Chairman of the Per Jacobsson Foundation, and he is member of the Group of Thirty, and other international organizations. Dr. Ortiz has participated in different studies for the IMF, where, from 2010 to 2011, he chaired the External Panel for the Review of the Fund’s Risk Management Framework, and more recently participated in the IMF’s 2014 Triennial Surveillance Review as a member of the External Advisory Group. Dr. Ortiz earned a BA degree in Economics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a PhD in Economics from Stanford University. He has taught at universities in Mexico and the United States.

Webcast

Coffee Break

II. Towards a new economic model? Restoring strong long-term growth in Latin America

As the stimulus from the extraordinarily favorable external conditions of the last decade has faded and domestic supply bottlenecks have come to the fore, expectations for growth have been pared back much of Latin America. What are the main obstacles in the region, and where is its untapped potential? How should policymakers design reform agendas to boost saving, investment, and productivity? Does the region need to diversify away from commodities and transform economic structures to better integrate into global trade and supply chains? And how can it avoid the pitfalls of past experiences with industrial policies?

Moderator: Jose Viñals, Financial Counsellor and Monetary and Capital Markets Department Director, IMF

José Viñ:als is currently the Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is a member of the Financial Stability Board, representing the IMF.

His professional career has been closely tied to the Central Bank of Spain, where he served as the Deputy Governor after holding successive positions.

He has also held the positions of Chairman of the European Central Bank International Relations Committee; and Chairman of Spain’s Deposit Guarantee Funds.

He has been a member of: the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on the Global Financial System; the European Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee; and the high-level group appointed by the President of the European Commission to examine economic challenges in the European Union. He was also a member of the European Union Economic and Financial Committee and a Board Member of the Spanish Securities Authority, the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores.

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Valencia; a Master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics; and Master's and Doctoral (Ph.D.) degrees in Economics from Harvard University. He is a former Faculty Member of the Economics Department at Stanford University.

His awards include the Premio Rey Jaime I (King James I Prize) in Economics in 2001.

Panelists:

Ricardo Hausmann, Harvard University

Ricardo Hausmann is Director of Harvard's Center for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Kennedy School of Government. Previously, he served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created the Research Department. He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. He was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (IESA) (1985-1991) in Caracas, where he founded the Center for Public Policy. His research interests include issues of growth, macroeconomic stability, international finance, and the social dimensions of development. He holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University.

Santiago Levy, IDB

Santiago Levy is the Vice-President for Sectors and Knowledge at the Inter-American Development Bank, and previously Chief Economist.

Previously, he was General Director at the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) from December 2000 to October 2005. From 1994 to 2000, Levy served as the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico, becoming the main architect of the renowned social program Progresa-Oportunidades that benefits the poor.

He holds a Ph.D. in economics and a Masters in Political economy from Boston University. He was a post-doctoral fellow at Cambridge University. Mr. Levy has advised several governments and international organizations and has held several teaching positions, including faculty positions at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo of Mexico and Boston University, where he was Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for Economic Development.

He is the author of at least 80 articles, monographs and book chapters on such diverse subjects as poverty reduction, competitiveness, foreign exchange policy, export imbalances, pricing, microeconomics and energy. His paper Poverty in Mexico won the 1992 National Research Prize in Economics awarded by the Bank of Mexico.

His recent published books are: No Growth without Equity? Inequality, Interests and Competition in Mexico (edited with Michael Walton), Palgrave-Macmillan and the World Bank, 2009; Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes: Social Policy, Informality, and Economic Growth in Mexico, Brookings Institution Press, 2008; Progress Against Poverty: Sustaining Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades Program, Brookings Institution Press, 2006; Sin Herencia de Pobreza, Editorial Planeta, 2005 (with Evelyne Rodríguez); and Ensayos sobre el Desarrollo Económico y Social de México, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 2004.

Shannon O'Neil, CFR

Shannon K. O'Neil is Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher. She is the author of Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead (Oxford University Press, 2013), which analyzes the political, economic, and social transformations Mexico has undergone over the last three decades and why these changes matter for the United States. She also directed CFR's Independent Task Force on North America: Time for a New Focus, as well as the Independent Task Force on U.S.-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality. Her blog, Latin America's Moment, analyzes developments in Latin America and U.S. relations in the region. She holds a BA from Yale University, an MA in international relations from Yale University, and a PhD in government from Harvard University.

Andrés Velasco, Columbia University

Andrés Velasco was a presidential candidate in Chile in 2012-13. He also was the Minister of Finance of Chile between March 2006 and March 2010. Since September 2013 he has been Professor of Professional Practice in International Development at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Prior to entering government, Mr. Velasco was Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, an appointment he had held since 2000. Andrés Velasco received a B.A. in economics and philosophy and an M.A. in international relations from Yale University. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University and was a postdoctoral fellow in political economy at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Velasco is the author of nearly one hundred academic articles, several academic books and two novels. He was president of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) from 2005 to 2007. In February 2006 he received the Award for Excellence in Research from the Inter-American Development Bank.

Webcast

Luncheon conversation (by invitation only)

Olivier Blanchard

A citizen of France, Olivier Blanchard has spent his professional life in Cambridge, U.S. After obtaining his Ph.D in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977, he taught at Harvard University, returning to MIT in 1982, where he has been since then. He is the Class of 1941 Professor of Economics, and past Chair of the Economics Department. He is currently on leave from MIT, as Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund.

He is a macroeconomist, who has worked on a wide set of issues, from the role of monetary policy, to the nature of speculative bubbles, to the nature of the labor market and the determinants of unemployment, to transition in former communist countries. In the process, he has worked with numerous countries and international organizations. He is the author of many books and articles, including two textbooks in macroeconomics, one at the graduate level with Stanley Fischer, one at the undergraduate level.He is a fellow and Council member of the Econometric Society, a past vice president of the American Economic Association, and a member of the American Academy of Sciences.

Robert Zoellick

Robert B. Zoellick is a Senior Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University. Previously, he served for five years as the 11th President of the World Bank Group from 2007 to 2012. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Zoellick served as Vice Chairman, International of the Goldman Sachs Group, Managing Director, and Chairman of Goldman Sachs' Board of International Advisors in 2006-07. In 2005–06, Mr. Zoellick served as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. State Department. From 2001 to 2005, he served in the U.S. cabinet as the 13th trade representative. He was a distinguished visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in 2012-13. Mr. Zoellick has received a number of distinctions and awards, including the Knight Commanders Cross from Germany for his work on unification; the Alexander Hamilton and Distinguished Service Awards; the highest honors of the Departments of Treasury and State, respectively; U.S. Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service; and a Doctorate of Humane Letters from St. Joseph’s College. Mr. Zoellick graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College. He earned a JD magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School and an MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Webcast

III. Latin America: Outlook and new policy challenges

This high-level panel will discuss the economic outlook for Latin America in a more challenging external environment and the policy priorities to restore robust growth, preserve macro-financial stability, and secure past social gains—including lower poverty rates and income inequality.

Moderator: David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director, IMF

David Lipton assumed the position of First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund in 2011. Before joining the Fund, he was Special Assistant to the President, and served as Senior Director for International Economic Affairs at the National Economic Council and National Security Council at the White House. Previously, Mr. Lipton was a Managing Director at Citi. Prior to joining Citi in May 2005, he was at Moore Capital Management for five years and, before that he spent a year at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Lipton served in the Clinton administration at the Treasury Department from 1993 to 1998, including as Assistant Secretary and Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Before that, he was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center of Scholars. From 1989 to 1992, he worked as economic adviser to the governments of Russia, Poland and Slovenia. Mr. Lipton began his career with eight years on the IMF staff. He has a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University in 1982 and a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1975.

Panelists:

Miguel Castilla, Former Minister of Economy and Finance, Peru

Luis Miguel Castilla was appointed Ambassador of Peru to the United States on February 01 2015 by President Ollanta Humala. He had served as Minister of Economy and Finance of Peru from July 2011 to September 2014. During the past 3 years, Peru's credit ratings were upgraded by all major credit rating agencies (classified as the second highest investment rated country in Latin America).s Prior to his appointment, Castilla held several positions at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, including Deputy Finance Minister and Chief of Staff. In addition, he has over fifteen year experience at multilateral development banks, holding senior positions at CAF -Development Bank of Latin America, among others. Castilla holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University of Maryland.

Joaquim Levy, Minister of Finance, Brazil

Joaquim Vieira Ferreira Levy is the Finance Minister of Brazil. Mr. Levy has ample experience in the private, public, and international sectors. Most recently he was the Chief Executive Officer at Bradesco Asset Management S.A. Previously, he has been Secretary of the Treasury in Brazil's Federal Government, and Secretary of Finance of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Mr. Levy has been an Executive Vice President at the Inter-American Development Bank, and has served on the staff of the IMF. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Carmen Reinhart, Harvard Univeristy

Carmen M. Reinhart is the Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System at Harvard Kennedy School. Previously, she was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for International Economics at the University of Maryland. Professor Reinhart held positions as Chief Economist and Vice President at the investment bank Bear Stearns in the 1980s. She spent several years at the International Monetary Fund. Reinhart is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Economic Advisers and the Economic Advisory Panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She has been listed among Bloomberg Markets Most Influential 50 in Finance.

Reinhart has written on a variety of topics in macroeconomics and international finance. She has served on numerous editorial boards and has testified before congress. Her work has helped to inform the understanding of financial crises for over a decade. Her best-selling book (with Kenneth S. Rogoff) entitled This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly documents the striking similarities of the recurring booms and busts that have characterized financial history and has been translated to over 20 languages and won the 2010 Paul A. Samuelson TIAA-CREF Institute Award, among others.

Nathan Sheets, Treasury Under Secretary, United States

Nathan Sheets is the Under Secretary for International Affairs at the Department of the Treasury, where he is the senior official responsible for international economic issues.

Before joining the Administration, Mr. Sheets was Global Head of International Economics at Citigroup from September 2011 to February 2014. Previously, he held various positions over eighteen years at the Federal Reserve Board, including as Director of the Division of International Finance. While on leave from the Board from 2006-2007, Mr. Sheets served as a Senior Advisor to the US Executive Director at the IMF. Mr. Sheets received his B.A. in economics from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Webcast

Closing Remarks by Alejandro Werner, Director, Western Hemisphere Department, IMF

Alejandro Werner assumed his current position as Director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in January 2013. A Mexican citizen, Mr. Werner has had distinguished careers in the public and private sectors as well as in academia. Most recently, he served as Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico from Dec. 2006 until August 2010, was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid Spain (from August 2010-July 2011), and Head of Corporate and Investment banking at BBVA-Bancomer (from August 2011 until end-2012). Previously he was Director of Economic Studies at the Bank of Mexico and professor at ITAM. He has published widely. Mr. Werner was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007. Mr. Werner received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.