Navigating the Great Transition: An Emerging Market Perspective Speech by Dr. Veerathai Santiprabhob Governor of the Bank of Thailand School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University October 5, 2016  Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a pleasure for me to be here in New York and to have a chance to participate in the policy discussion at SIPA. Given the increasingly complex policy challenges facing the global community, the contribution that SIPA makes in educating future leaders to serve the global public interest is critical. I would like to thank Professor Ito for inviting me. He was one of my early mentors at graduate school and I have benefitted from his many insights ever since. This coming weekend I will be attending the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. As you know, this is one of the biggest global forums for addressing issues related to the global economy and world financial market. The discussions will be especially pertinent this year given the complex and highly unpredictable state of the world that we face. Former premier Wen Jiabao once described China’s growth performance as “unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable”. This seems like an apt description of the global economy at this juncture. Unstable because the proliferation of popular discontent fueled by rising income inequality amidst ongoing international conflicts have greatly elevated geopolitical uncertainty. Unbalanced because with anemic recovery of advanced economies, much of the growth in 1  the global economy continues to be driven by emerging markets.
This is followed by reversals arising from the deleveraging efforts to reduce public and private indebtedness. These volatile capital flows in the international financial markets have increased the volatility in exchange rates and asset markets. The low international interest rate environment has also been a factor that has increased the prospect for the financialisation of commodity markets. Finally, there is the impact of the potential unintended consequences of the global financial regulatory reforms. The effort to implement the new global regulatory reforms is already underway in Asia, with many jurisdictions making significant progress. These reforms are aimed to significantly enhance financial institutional soundness and safeguard financial stability. Concerns have, however, been raised on the unintended consequences that may  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  arise in the emerging economies, including its potential ramifications on the real economy. This underscores the importance to implement these reforms cautiously, including the need to conduct impact and behavioural studies, and to consider how the national implementation of these global standards should reflect the respective domestic experiences and circumstances. Factors underlying the transformation of Asia Asia’s rapid growth trajectory over several decades has been underpinned by a number of fundamental characteristics. These same characteristics are still present and will continue to support the ongoing transformation that is currently taking place. More recently, distinct strategies have been implemented to strengthen further the macroeconomic fundamentals and financial system soundness in the region.