The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has held its annual flagship
event, the 12th International Research Conference at the John ExterInternational Conference Hall of the Central Bank on 09 December 2019.
The Conference was aimed at stimulating theoretical and
empirical research on various contemporary macroeconomic policy issues and
provided researchers from diverse backgrounds a platform to discuss their
views, findings and experiences from varied perspectives.
Delivering the inaugural address, Deshamanya Dr. Indrajit
Coomaraswamy, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, highlighted the various
global and domestic challenges faced by central banks and policymakers around
the world and the need to adapt to these developments to ensure greater
macroeconomic and financial stability. He also highlighted the macroeconomic
challenges faced by Sri Lanka and emphasised the necessity for continuous
research to assist policymakers in the formulation of conducive macroeconomic
policies in a timely manner.
This years Conference was graced by the presence of two
eminent international economists Prof. Sayuri Shirai, Professor of Keio
University, Visiting Scholar at the Asian Development Bank Institute and former
Member of the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan, and Mr. Marc-Olivier
Strauss-Kahn, Honorary Director General and former Chief Economist of Banque de
France.
Addressing the gathering, Prof. Sayuri Shirai highlighted
the issues related to the international finance trilemma in emerging economies
and low inflation and new monetary policy frameworks in advanced economies in
her speech titled "Recent Monetary Policy Issues and Challenges". Mr.
Marc-Olivier Strauss-Kahn, in his speech titled "Central Banking: from Research
to Economic/Financial Literacy", highlighted the role of central banks in
promoting research and economic and financial literacy and shared the
experience of Banque de France.
This was followed by two technical sessions, chaired by Mr.
K M M Siriwardana and Mrs. T M J Y P Fernando, Assistant Governors of the
Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Seven research papers on contemporary topics such as
monetary policy, public investment, productivity and taxation, inter alia,
selected through a rigorous doubleblind review process, were presented by
researchers from the USA, Australia, India and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
The Dr. D S Wijesinghe Memorial Award for the Best Research
Paper was awarded to Mr. Mayandy Kesavarajah of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka
for the paper titled Monetary Policy and Inflation-Output Variability in
Developing Economies: Lessons from Sri Lanka.
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