XX Meeting of Heads of Monetary Policy

The purpose of this annual meeting is to bring together top-level monetary policy officials from Latin America and the Caribbean and advanced economies (United States of America, Canada and the Euro Zone) to exchange recent experiences in the conduct of their monetary policies. In the 2023 edition, for example, speakers included senior officials from the central banks of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, with the participation of Óscar Arce, Director General of Economics of the European Central Bank. The 2024 edition will also include the participation of Trevor Reeve, Director of the Division of Monetary Affairs of the Federal Reserve of the United States of America.

The format of the Meeting allows us to learn about contemporary elements in the management of each country's monetary policy, such as the trajectory followed by the monetary instrument (typically, the key interest rate), its impact on activity, unconventional policies, measures of labor market slack and external balance and, finally, on general or core inflation. Likewise, the forecasts that each central bank contemplates for the future course of the inflation rate around the target rate or range are discussed. The Meeting has allowed for interaction among officials of the Membership, as well as for learning about the challenges and policies implemented by advanced economies.

Given the small and open economies of most of CEMLA's Member countries (particularly those from Latin America and the Caribbean), the description of each country's inflationary outlook goes beyond an account of the relevant domestic factors, and also incorporates a view of the global economy. In this sense, exposure to innovations in the implementation and conduct of monetary policy in advanced economies, in response to various economic, climatic and geopolitical shocks, and with unsuspected dynamics, are of particular importance for the design and implementation of monetary policy in the central banks of the Membership.