Bis Papers No 36 New Financing Trends In Latin America: A Bumpy Road Towards Stability. Proceedings Of A Joint Meeting Organised By The Bis And The Federal Reserve Bank (frb) Of Atlanta In Mexico City, May 2007

BIS Papers No 36 New financing trends in Latin America: a bumpy road towards stability Proceedings of a joint meeting organised by the BIS and the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) of Atlanta in Mexico City, May 2007 Monetary and Economic Department February 2008 Papers in this volume were prepared for a meeting organised by the BIS and the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) of Atlanta in Mexico City in May 2007. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the BIS or the institutions represented at the meeting. Individual papers (or excerpts thereof) may be reproduced or translated with the authorisation of the authors concerned. Requests for copies of publications, or for additions/changes to the mailing list, should be sent to: Bank for International Settlements Press & Communications CH 4002 Basel, Switzerland E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +41 61 280 9100 and +41 61 280 8100 © Bank for International Settlements 2008. All rights reserved. Brief excerpts may be reproduced or translated provided the source is stated. ISSN 1609-0381 (print) ISBN 92-9131-746-2 (print) ISSN 1682-7651 (online) ISBN 92-9197-746-2 (online) Foreword In May 2007 the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) of Atlanta hosted a meeting in Mexico City on “New financing trends in Latin America: a bumpy road towards stability”. The meeting, which was chaired by Philip Turner of the BIS, brought together senior officials from central banks, finance ministries, the private sector, multilateral institutions and academia to discuss issues and challenges from the most recent financing developments observed across the region. Five main issues were addressed at the meeting: recent trends in Latin America, the influence of certain idiosyncratic features on financial developments in the region, the benefits and challenges of the development of domestic local currency bond markets, the implications for monetary policy and the coordination of debt management policies between central banks and finance ministries and, finally, the implications for financial stability. This meeting was a “first” as a collaborative effort between the BIS and the FRB Atlanta, and was organised at the initiative of the BIS Representative Office for the Americas (inaugurated in 2002) and the FRB Atlanta Americas Center (created in 2005). Given the significance of the topics discussed, we decided to publish in this BIS Papers series the contributions by José Antonio Ocampo (United Nations Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs) and Professor Barry Eichengreen (University of California, Berkeley), a contribution by the Bank of Spain, and the background documents prepared for this event. We would like to thank all the participants in the meeting for their valuable contributions to the discussions. Also, we would like to thank Camilo E. Tovar (BIS) and Myriam QuispeAgnoli (FRB Atlanta) for coordinating and organising the meeting, as well as for putting together this publication. Gregor Heinrich Chief Representative Office for the Americas Bank for International Settlements BIS Papers No 36 Thomas J Cunningham Vice President and Associate Director of Research FRB Atlanta iii List of participants Central banks and ministries of finance Central Bank of Argentina Martin Castellano Chief of Staff Ministry of Economy and Production (MECON) Marta Elsa Zaghini Deputy Secretary for Financial Services Belize Central Bank of Belize Sydney Campbell Governor Bolivia Central Bank of Bolivia Osvaldo Nina Member of the Directory