This event will discuss the IMF’s views on the significant challenges Europe faces as it climbs out of its deepest recession since the Second World War and seeks to establish a sustainable growth path.
Marek Belka, Head of the European Department, will discuss the updated economic outlook for the region and discuss the policy map as discussed in the just released Regional Economic Outlook Europe: Fostering Sustainability. The fragility of the recovery still implies a need for support, but with private demand expected to sustain the upswing next year and many crisis measures having run their course, it is time to prepare for exit. This has implications for fiscal, monetary, and financial policies. Intertwined spillovers across policy areas and countries require coordination and sequencing of the exit, in particular in the euro area. In emerging Europe, a key policy challenge will be attracting and harnessing healthy capital inflows to foster sustainable growth
Wim Fonteyne, financial sector expert and Senior Economist in the European Department, will focus on the need for a new European financial architecture—an issue recently stressed by the IMF’s Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The presentation will lay out the IMF’s views on how the EU should develop this architecture, covering much-needed reforms in the area of crisis management and resolution as well as the new cross-border supervisory and regulatory framework that is being established on the basis of the recommendations of the De Larosière Group. The presentation will draw on recent and ongoing staff work, which will be reflected in a forthcoming update of the IMF book Integrating Europe’s Financial Markets.
