2018 Geneva Report on the World Economy

Professor Ugo Panizza of the Graduate Institute in Geneva, presented the findings of the 2018 report Geneva Report on the World Economy, “And Yet It Moves: Inflation and the Great Recession,” on January 10, 2018, at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The Geneva Reports on the World Economy are published annually by Centre for Economic Policy Research and the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies. This 19th edition focuses on the low and stable inflation experienced across the developed world in recent decades. With most countries regarding low inflation as a key policy goal, it is tempting to describe this solid anchoring of inflation as a great achievement of monetary policy. Inflation has been persistently below central bank targets for many years now, though, contrary to their mandates. Just as the Great Moderation preceded the Great Recession, the report analyzes whether this long period of low inflation could lead to a surprise bout of inflation.

Panizza is also the director of the Graduate Institute's Centre on Finance and Development. Previously, he was chief of the debt and finance analysis unit at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He has also worked at the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.