Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA) is pleased to have hosted a two-day conference focused on the drivers, effects and trade-offs of inflation. The program included a combination of technical presentations, a panel discussion, and a keynote address by Christoph Gross Steffen. Dr. Steffen is Deputy Head of the Monetary Policy Research Division at the Banque de France, which he joined in 2016 after completing a post-doctoral position at DIW Berlin. He holds a PhD in Economics from Freie Universität Berlin, an MSc in Economics from the University of Münster, and a Maîtrise from Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas. His research focuses on applied macroeconomics, with particular interest in monetary and fiscal policy, sovereign risk, and the role of ambiguity in the macroeconomy.
Programme Details:
Day 1
| Start | End | Description | Speakers |
| 09:00 | 09:40 | (Dis)inflation, external shocks, monetary policy and macroeconomic regime change in South Africa | Ruthira Naraidoo, Univerity of Pretoria |
| 09:40 | 10:20 | The Macroeconomic Relevance of Mobile Money to Inflation Dynamics Download presentation |
Mphatso Elias Ackim, University of Pretoria |
| 10:20 | 10:50 | Break | |
| 10:50 | 11:30 | Quantifying the impact of international food price spillovers on South Africa domestic market: Short- and long-term dynamics and transmission channels Download presentation |
Gisele Mah, North West University |
| 11:30 | 12:10 | Monetary Policy Shocks, Agricultural Growth, and Food Inflation in Developing Agrarian Economies: Misled Central Banks? | Edward Leman, University of Malawi |
| 12:10 | 13:10 | Lunch | |
| 13:10 | 13:50 | Pass-through and bias in South Africa’s household inflation expectations? Download presentation |
Katrien Smuts, Stellenbosch University |
| 13:50 | 14:30 | Governance, and regional inflation persistence Download presentation |
David Faridan, University of Cape Town |
| 14:30 | 15:00 | Break | |
| 15:00 | 15:30 | Accounting for Regional Dynamics and Global Influences in South Africa’s Inflation Problem Download presentation |
Shakirudeen Taiwo, University of Johannesburg |
| 15:40 | 16:20 | Global Shocks and Local Response: Currency Returns and Monetary Policy Download presentation |
Husnu Dalgic, University of Mannheim |
Day 2
| Start | End | Description | Contact |
| 09:00 | 10:00 | Keynote address: Anchoring of Inflation Expectations: Do Inflation Target Formulations Matter? Download presentation |
Christoph Grosse-Steffen, Banque de France |
| 10:00 | 10:30 | Break | |
| 10:30 | 11:10 | Gaps in the South African Inflation Targeting Debate Download presentation |
Jan-Hendrik Pretorius, Stellenbosch University |
| 11:10 | 11:50 | Disinflation Policy in a DSGE Model with Trend Inflation and Price Dispersion Download presentation |
Hylton Hollander, University of Cape Town |
| 11:50 | 13:00 | Lunch | |
| 13:00 | 13:40 | Navigating Optimal Inflation Targeting in South Africa: A Regime-Switching DSGE Approach Download presentation |
Christian Tipoy, University of Pretoria |
| 13:40 | 14:20 | Macroeconomic effects of lowering South Africa’s inflation target: an SVAR analysis Download presentation |
Richard Kima, UNU-WIDER and Keagile Lesame, National Treasury |
| 14:20 | 14:50 | Break | |
| 14:55 | 15:35 | Panel: The future of South African Monetary Policy. Should our target change? (Preliminary title) | – South African Reserve Bank – National Treasury – Private Sector – Academia |
Video content for this event will be archived on our website and YouTube Channel as soon as it becomes available.
