Prasarn Trairatvorakul: Thailand’s financial challenges in global capital markets Speech by Dr Prasarn Trairatvorakul, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, at the Thailand Focus 2012 “Positioning Thailand for the next growth phase”, Bangkok, 29 August 2012. *  *  *  It’s an honor to speak before you today at the Thailand Focus conference. This morning you heard Finance Minister Kittiratt Na Ranong speak on Thailand’s competitiveness and fiscal policy. Later on in the conference, other distinguished speakers will discuss Thailand’s investment opportunities in greater detail. To complement the picture, I will speak on monetary policy to complete your views on the investment opportunities and prospects of the Thai economy. As international investors, I believe you need to have a firm understanding of the country’s policy direction – something that is sorely needed in the current uncertain global economic environment. So today I will share with you my thinking on the monetary policy options going forward in light of my assessment of the global economy and the risks to the Thai economy. The organizer of this conference, President Charamporn, has kindly asked me to talk about “Financial Challenges in Global Capital Markets”. This is an especially relevant topic because, this year, the key challenge for Thailand is the challenge of weathering the financial and economic turmoil from the euro crisis. More than one year ago, I had the honor of giving a talk here. Some of you who were in attendance may recall that I labeled 2011 “the year of rebalancing” for monetary policy.
Reforming the international monetary and financial system and preserving monetary and financial stability in financially integrated small and open economies Már Guðmundsson, Governor of the Central Bank of Iceland, panel comments in the 50th Anniversary Conference of the Central Bank of Malta, Valletta, 4 May 2018. Let me begin by congratulating all at the Central Bank of Malta on the Bank’s 50th anniversary and thank Governor Vella for the invitation to speak at this conference. I spoke in a Central Bank of Malta conference here in Valetta around the middle of the 1990s. At that time Iceland had more or less fully liberalised its capital account and had a pegged exchange rate. Malta also had a pegged exchange rate but still had some capital controls. The world has changed since then and our understanding of it even more. We in Iceland went towards a flexible exchange rate and inflation targeting, while you entered monetary union. Overall, we have both done well, but our road in Iceland has been bumpier. The heading of this panel is Challenges facing central banks after the financial crisis. That is a big menu. For my introductory remarks I choose two related issues that have been high on my mind for years, both as a policy maker in a small, open and financially integrated economy and during my tenure at the BIS.