Keeping prices stable amid structural tremors

OeNB-SUERF Economics Conference in Vienna starts today

“Monetary policy and structural tectonic shifts” – under this heading, the 52nd Economics Conference in Vienna will bring together top experts to discuss price stability in a world that is undergoing massive structural change. “While this shift presents an opportunity for the euro as an international reserve currency, it also raises new questions for monetary policy,” said OeNB Governor Robert Holzmann in his opening words today.

It is central banks’ primary job to safeguard price stability – a job that isn’t getting any easier and that requires central banks to constantly adapt. “Our world has recently experienced economic and geopolitical tremors – disruptions that have shaken long-held assumptions and institutions.” With these words, OeNB Governor Holzmann opened the 52nd Economics Conference in Vienna today. The two-day conference is organized jointly by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) and SUERF (The European Money and Finance Forum).

Current environment for central banks more challenging than ever
“Today, central banks must navigate an environment that is more intricate than ever before,” said Holzmann in his opening address, identifying some key challenges:

• Artificial intelligence: “Recent developments in AI have the potential to fundamentally alter the way we live – and, by extension, the structure of the global economy.”
• Financial innovation: The rapidly growing global reach of dollar-pegged stablecoins such as Tether and USDC has “serious regulatory and monetary policy implications.”
• Trump administration: “Frequently shifting economic signals from the United States continue to inject an added layer of unpredictability, further complicating the already complex task of policymaking.”

How can central banks adapt and respond?
The Trump administration has decided to withdraw from important international initiatives and bodies. Even membership in the International Monetary Fund is currently under question. Erratic tariff decisions and threats to the Federal Reserve are once more putting central bank independence high on agenda – globally and at the Economics Conference, where leading experts will discuss how central banks can cope with, and adapt to, a constantly shifting environment and changing supply-side conditions.

Rethinking monetary policy
To explore promising strategies for monetary policy, OeNB Governor Robert Holzmann and SUERF President Donato Masciandaro welcomed top international speakers at the conference today, including Daniel Gros (Institute for European Policymaking @ Bocconi University), Huw Pill (Bank of England) and Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Universidad del Desarrollo) – as well as many other distinguished experts in monetary policy and economic research. “Their insights will help bring together academic perspectives and policy practice,” Holzmann added.

Economics Conference
The OeNB’s Economics Conference has a long-standing tradition of bringing together renowned experts in economics, central banking and supervision. In recent years, Austria’s central bank – the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) – has organized the annual Economics Conference in cooperation with SUERF.

SUERF – The European Money and Finance Forum – is an independent, non-profit network association of central banks, supervisors, financial institutions, academic institutions and financial sector practitioners.