Conference: Monetary policy frameworks in developing countries - Practice and challenges

An international conference on monetary policy frameworks in developing countries was held in Kigali on July 19th -20th, 2012. The conference was organised by the National Bank of Rwanda in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the IGC. The main objective of the conference was to discuss the critical challenges facing monetary targeting regime as well as the prerequisites for transiting to more flexible frameworks in response to the structural changes and economic and financial reforms that countries undertake at different stages of their development. The conference focused on the inflation targeting as an alternative to monetary targeting and drew lessons on where it has been effective.

The conference was opened by Prime Minister of Rwanda, Rt. Hon. Dr. Pierre Damien Habumuremyi who tasked the conference to be mindful of four challenges that a robust framework has to accommodate, namely exogenous shocks and crises; structural changes and effect of reforms; supply-side sources of inflation; and the state of financial institutions and markets. Other opening remarks were given by Amb. Claver Gatete, Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda and the Guest Speaker, Mrs. Antoinette M. Sayeh, Director, Africa Department, IMF. The presentations and discussions evolved around four themes, namely: the road to inflation targeting, the role of exchange rate policies, country experiences and monetary transmission mechanism.

The paper published as an output of this event Evolving Monetary Policy Frameworks in Low-Income Countries: The Tanzanian Experience is available here.