Fed Vice Chair Jefferson and ECB Chief Economist Lane headline day two of the BOJ’s IMES conference with a fireside chat on monetary policy and supply shocks, followed by a closing panel including the Bank of England’s Lombardelli and Fed’s Goolsbee.
Programme: Day Two, May 28 — Times in JST / GMT / US Eastern
9:00 JST / 00:00 GMT / 20:00 ET (Wed) — Fireside Chat: Monetary Policy and Supply Shocks
Moderator: Ryozo Himino, Bank of Japan
Speakers: Philip Jefferson (Federal Reserve Board), Philip R. Lane (European Central Bank)
The standout session of day two. Jefferson, the Fed’s Vice Chair, has been a measured voice on the FOMC as the board navigates an inflation overshoot driven by the Middle East energy shock while resisting premature commitment to a hiking cycle. Lane, the ECB’s chief economist and its most influential internal voice on the inflation outlook, is overseeing a institution that markets have almost fully priced for a June rate hike. The contrast in their respective policy stances, and whatever common ground they find on supply shock dynamics, will be the most closely watched exchange of the two-day conference.
9:55 JST / 00:55 GMT / 20:55 ET (Wed) — Session 4: Monetary-Fiscal Nexus and Unintended Equilibria
Chairperson: Rosmarie Schlup, Swiss National Bank
Presenter: Daisuke Ikeda, Bank of Japan
Discussant: Fernando Martin, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
A technically focused session examining the interaction between monetary policy and fiscal dynamics, and the risk of economies settling into unintended equilibria when the two are misaligned. With government debt levels elevated across major economies following successive crisis responses, the question of how central banks navigate tightening cycles without triggering fiscal stress is far from academic.
11:25 JST / 02:25 GMT / 22:25 ET (Wed) — Policy Panel Discussion 2: Monetary Policy in a Changing World Economy
Moderator: Athanasios Orphanides, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Panelists: Piti Disyatat (Bank of Thailand), Austan Goolsbee (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago), M. Ayhan Kose (World Bank Group), Clare Lombardelli (Bank of England), Koji Nakamura (Bank of Japan)
The closing panel brings together five institutions spanning advanced and emerging economies. Lombardelli, the Bank of England’s Deputy Governor for monetary policy, is grappling with a UK inflation picture complicated by both energy pass-through and persistent services price pressure. Goolsbee, one of the more dovish voices on the FOMC, offers a counterpoint to the hawkish signals emanating from some of his colleagues. Nakamura provides the BOJ’s own perspective on navigating normalisation in an economy still rebuilding domestic inflation momentum. The World Bank’s Kose adds an emerging market and global growth dimension that will resonate across the Asia-Pacific audience.
12:45 JST / 03:45 GMT / 23:45 ET (Wed) — Adjournment
Fed vice chair Jefferson
—–
Day two is shorter but arguably more market-sensitive than day one. The fireside chat pairing of Jefferson and Lane puts two of the world’s most consequential policymakers in the same room at a moment when the Fed and ECB are on diverging paths: the ECB moving toward hikes while the Fed holds. Any remarks on the inflation outlook, the Hormuz shock, or the pace of policy normalisation will be closely parsed. The closing panel adds the Bank of England’s Lombardelli and the Fed’s Goolsbee, broadening the signal set across three of the world’s four major central banks. The monetary-fiscal nexus session carries secondary but real relevance given rising deficit concerns in several major economies.
