Spotlight on Brazil again, but from a different perspective. Specifically, Ilan Goldfajnās. He is the Governor of the countryās Central Bank, and his is inevitably a monetarist approach, which he extends to all emerging economies (EMEs). His presentation for the SDA Bocconi MBA course on āEconomic Scenariosā made his focal point immediately clear. Being a central banker in an EME is a more ājumpy-bumpyā task than it would be in an advanced economy: having to constantly ensure the credibility of institutions and markets, it is sometimes necessary to tackle problems in a āheterodoxā way.
Of course, Goldfajn remains true to his institutional role of being the āguardianā of inflation. But he goes further: āEMEs can diligently do all of their āhomeworkā: implementing structural reforms, improving fundamentals, and increasing resilience. But it is essential for them to have buffers ā currency reserves, floating exchange rates, trade surplus, and so on ā which help smooth the adjustment pathā.
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SDA Bocconi School of Management