Post-crisis lessons and policy challenges
 
Welcome to the SARB Biennial Conference 2023.
 
The theme for this conference is ‘Post-crisis lessons and policy challenges’.
 

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a new set of growth challenges for macroeconomic policymakers. Following the post-COVID boom, the global economy has been confronted by weakening growth amid high inflation. While inflation peaks seem to be behind us, the outlook for monetary policy remains uncertain as central banks assess the transmission of monetary tightening to the real economy. Tighter global financial conditions are especially important for emerging markets which have had to navigate the changing global financial cycle while maintaining domestic macroeconomic stability through underscoring the importance of a coordinated approach to monetary and fiscal policy. Climate change presents a new challenge for policymakers who will need to take its uneven effects into consideration as they forge a new path for global policy. 

To download the agenda click here.

 
CONTACT US

For any queries about the Biennial conference, please contact Carol Henning at carol.henning@resbank.co.za

 

 
CONTACT US

For any queries about the Biennial conference, please contact Carol Henning at carol.henning@resbank.co.za

 

Conference Updates

Session 1: Back to target? Monetary policy in advanced economies

Welcome and opening

Lesetja Kganyago
Governor
South African Reserve Bank
   

Speaker

Raphael Bostic
President and Chief Executive Officer Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

 Presentation  

Speaker

Huw Pill
Chief Economist and Executive Director for Monetary Analysis and Research
Bank of England

 Presentation  

Speaker

Giovanni Ricco
Professor of Economics
École Polytechnique and
the University of Warwick

 Presentation   

Q&A

Chair: Rashad Cassim
Deputy Governor
South African Reserve Bank

   

Session 2: Global finance and growth

Speaker

Atif Mian
Professor of Economics Princeton University
 
 Presentation 

Q&A

Chair: Christopher Loewald 
Head: Economic Research Department South African Reserve Bank
 

Session 3: Re-attaining macroeconomic stability: challenges for emerging economies 

Speaker

Fabrizio Zampolli
Head of Emerging Markets
Bank for International Settlements
 
 Presentation 

Speaker

Refet Gürkaynak
Professor of Economics Bilkent University

 Presentation

Speaker

Pierre Siklos
Professor of Economics
Wilfrid Laurier University and the Balsillie School of International Affairs

 Presentation

Q&A

Chair: Kuben Naidoo 
Deputy Governor 
South African Reserve Bank
 

Session 4: The role of climate change adaptation and mitigation in economic growth

Speaker

Luiz de Mello 
Director of the Policy Studies Branch of the Economics Department Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

 Presentation   

Speaker

Suzi Kerr 
Senior Vice President and Chief Economist
Environmental Defense Fund

 Presentation  

Q&A

Chair: Fundi Tshazibana 
Deputy Governor and Chief Executive Officer of the Prudential Authority 
South African Reserve Bank

   

Session 5: South Africa in focus: how to improve fiscal and monetary policy coordination

Speaker

Nicola Viegi
SARB Chair in Monetary Policy Studies and 
Head: Department of Economics
University of Pretoria

Speaker

Edgar Sishi 
Head: Budget Office
National Treasury

Speaker

Thabi Leoka 
Independent Economist

Q&A

Chair: Chris Loewald
Head: Economic Research Department
South African Reserve Bank

Session 6: The global economy

Speaker

Gita Gopinath 
First Deputy Managing Director
International Monetary Fund

  Presentation   

 

Q&A


Chair: Fundi Tshazibana 
Deputy Governor and Chief Executive Officer of the Prudential Authority 
South African Reserve Bank
 

Governors panel: Shaping the global policy trajectory 

Panellist

Lesetja Kganyago
Governor
South African Reserve Bank

Panellist


Gita Gopinath
First Deputy Managing Director
International Monetary Fund

Panellist


Raphael Bostic
President and Chief Executive Officer
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Panellist

Huw Pill 
Chief Economist and Executive Director for
Monetary Analysis and Research
Bank of England
 
Day 1: Thursday, 31 August 2023
 

Speakers' biographies 
 
Weclome and opening

Lesetja Kganyago
Governor
South African
Reserve Bank

Lesetja Kganyago was appointed Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) with effect from 9 November 2014. He was reappointed by the President of South Africa for a second five-year term with effect from 9 November 2019. Prior to his appointment as Governor, Lesetja served as Deputy Governor of the SARB from 16 May 2011 until his appointment as Governor.

Lesetja chairs the Committee of Central Bank Governors (CCBG) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and co-chairs the Financial Stability Board’s Cross-Border Payments Coordination Group (CPC) and Regional Consultative Group for Sub-Saharan Africa (RGG-SSA). In addition, he served as the Chairperson of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, which is the primary advisory board to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Board of Governors, from 18 January 2018 to 17 January 2021.

Before joining the SARB, Lesetja was the Director-General of the National Treasury of South Africa. He represented South Africa at international organisations such as the World Bank, the IMF, the Group of Twenty (G20) and the African Development Bank. In this role, he served as the Chair of the Development Committee Deputies and co-chaired a G20 Working Group on the reform of the IMF.

He holds an MSc in Economics from SOAS University of London, a BCom degree in Economics and Accounting from the University of South Africa as well as DCom degrees from Stellenbosch University and the Nelson Mandela University. He has also received various training in finance, economics and management.

Speaker

Raphael Bostic
President and Chief Executive Officer Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Raphael W Bostic took office on 5 June 2017 as the 15th President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He is responsible for all the Bank's activities, including monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation and payment services. In 2024 he will serve as a voting member on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the monetary policymaking body of the Federal Reserve System.

Before joining the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Raphael served as the Judith and John Bedrosian Chair in Governance and the Public Enterprise at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California (USC). Before that, he served as a Professor in USC’s School of Policy, Planning and Development. His research spanned many fields, including home ownership, housing finance, neighbourhood change, and the role of institutions in shaping policy effectiveness. He was Director of USC's Master of Real Estate Development degree programmme and was the founding director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast.

Raphael graduated from Harvard University with a combined major in Economics and Psychology. He earned his PhD in Economics from Stanford University.

Speaker

Huw Pill
Chief Economist and Executive Director for Monetary Analysis and Research Bank of England

Huw Pill is the Bank of England’s (BoE) Chief Economist and Executive Director for Monetary Analysis and Research. He is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. Huw is responsible for the analysis used to make monetary policy decisions. He also leads the research that supports all of the BoE’s other functions.

Previously, Huw was the Chief European Economist at Goldman Sachs (2011‒18). Before that, he worked at the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. During his tenure at the ECB he served as the Deputy Director of Research (2009‒11), Head of the Monetary Policy Stance Division (2004‒09) and worked in the Strategic Policy Issues Unit (1998‒2001).

Huw was also a member of the faculty at Harvard Business School (1995‒98, 2001‒04, 2019‒21). At the start of his career, he worked as an economist in the BoE’s then Economics Division (1990‒92).

Huw has a BA (Hons) from the University of Oxford and an MA and PhD from Stanford University.

Speaker

Giovanni Ricco
Professor of Economics École Polytechnique and the University of Warwick

Giovani Ricco is Professor of Economics at the Centre for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST) at École Polytechnique and at the University of Warwick. He is also a Research Fellow  at Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Économiques (OFCE) - SciencesPo, as well as a Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) Research Affiliate, an Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA) International Research Fellow and a SARB Research Fellow.

Giovanni is the Associate Editor at the European Economic Review.

He holds a PhD in Economics from the London Business School and a PhD in Physics from the University of Pisa. His main research interests lie in the fields of empirical macroeconomics and time-series econometrics.

Q&A Chair

Rashad Cassim
Deputy Governor 
South African
Reserve Bank

Rashad Cassim is a deputy governor of the SARB and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee and Financial Stability Committee. He oversees the Financial Markets and International Cluster, responsible for financial markets, international economic relations and policy, and legal services. Before the rotation of deputy governors on 1 April 2022, he oversaw the Financial Stability and Currency Cluster. He was also the Chairperson of the Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics under the auspices of the BIS for a three-year period between 2019 and 2022.

Before his appointment as Deputy Governor, Rashad was the Head of the Economic Research and Statistics Department, responsible for macroeconomic statistics, research, analysis and forecasting. Prior to joining the SARB, he served as the Deputy Director-General at Statistics South Africa, responsible for economic statistics.  Before that, he was a professor and Head of the School of Economics and Business Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). He has also held various research and academic positions at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Rashad holds a PhD in Economics from UCT.

Speakers' biographies 
 
Speaker

Atif Mian
Professor of Economics
Princeton University

Atif Mian is the John H Laporte, Junior Class of 1967 Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Finance at Princeton University, where he is also the Director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at the School of Public and International Affairs. He also co-founded the Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP) in 2007 ‒ a non-profit research institute dedicated to economic research, teaching and innovation.

Atif has a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a PhD in Economics, also from MIT. Before joining Princeton University, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His research focuses on finance and macroeconomics, and he is the co-author of the book House of Debt with Amir Sufi.

Q&A Chair

Chris Loewald
Head: Economic Research Department
South African
Reserve Bank

Chris Loewald is the Head of Economic Research at the SARB, which is responsible for research, forecasting, global economic analysis, and the SARB’s Monetary Policy Review. He is a member of the SARB’s Monetary Policy and Financial Stability committees.

Prior to joining the SARB in 2011, he spent 13 years at National Treasury in various senior policy roles, including Acting Head of the Budget Office (2005‒06) and Deputy Director-General for Economic Policy (2006‒11).

He holds an MA and PhD in International Economics and European Studies from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Speakers' biographies 
 
Speaker

Fabrizio Zampolli
Head of Emerging Markets 
Bank for
International Settlements

Fabrizio Zampolli is responsible for the analysis of macro-financial developments across the full spectrum of emerging market economies. His unit works in strict collaboration with the BIS economics teams based in Hong Kong SAR and Mexico City. Before his current position, he was Head of Economics for Latin America and the Caribbean (2018‒22), Head of Macroeconomic Analysis (2015‒16), Principal Economist at the Representative Office for Asia and the Pacific in Hong Kong SAR (2014‒15) and a senior economist (2009‒14). Before joining the BIS, he was a policy adviser in the External Monetary Policy Committee Unit of the Bank of England. He also worked in the External Developments Division and the Monetary Policy Strategy Division of the European Central Bank.

Fabrizio holds a PhD from the University of Warwick and a Laurea in Economia e Commercio from the Catholic University of Milan. His fields of interest include macroeconomics, international finance and financial markets.

Speaker

Refet Gürkaynak
Professor of Economics
Bilkent University

Refet Gürkaynak is Professor of Economics at Bilkent University and a Research Fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research, where he is the Director of the Monetary Economic and Fluctuations Program. He is the Chair of the Euro Area Business Cycle Dating Committee. Prior to his current position, he was an economist at the Monetary Affairs Division of the Federal Reserve Board. He is a frequent consultant to various central banks.

Gürkaynak holds a BA from Bilkent University and a PhD from Princeton University, both in Economics

Speaker

Pierre Siklos
Professor of Economics 
Wilfrid Laurier University and the
Balsillie School of
International Affairs

Pierre Siklos is a Professor of Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) where he specialises in macroeconomics, with an emphasis on the study of inflation, central banks and financial markets. He also conducts research in applied time series analysis. His research has been published in several international journals, and he has been a consultant to a variety of institutions and central banks. His work has been widely cited in several macroeconomics and econometrics textbooks. Pierre has also been a visiting lecturer at several universities in Europe and North America as well as in Australia and New Zealand. His research has been funded by domestic and international agencies. 

In 1999, he was an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and in 2009, he was a William Evans Fellow at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Pierre was Wilfrid Laurier University’s (WLU) University Research Professor for the academic year 2000–2001, the Director of the Viessmann European Research Centre at WLU from 2005 to 2014, and a member of the Czech National Bank’s Research Advisory Committee between 2012 and 2018. In 2008, Pierre was Chair of the Bundesbank Foundation of International Monetary Economics at the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany. He is a guest professor at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in Germany, a research fellow of the SARB and Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and was the Fondation France-Japon/Banque de France Fellow for 2021–2022.

Pierre holds BAcc and BCom degrees as well as an MA and PhD in Economics.

Q&A Chair

Kuben Naidoo
Deputy Governor 
South African
Reserve Bank

Kuben Naidoo is a deputy governor of the SARB and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. He oversees the Financial Stability and Currency Cluster, which incorporates the SARB’s Economic Statistics Department, the National Payment System Department, the Fintech Unit, the Financial Stability Department, and the Risk Management and Compliance Department. He will also oversee the newly established Corporation for Deposit Insurance. In addition, he is the co-chairperson of the Basel Consultative Group (a subcommittee of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision) and a member of the Committee on Global Financial Stability (CGFS).

Before the rotation of the deputy governors on 1 April 2022, Kuben oversaw the Prudential Cluster and was the first Chief Executive Officer of the Prudential Authority upon its inception. Prior to his appointment as a deputy governor, he served as Adviser to the Governor of the SARB and also as the Registrar of Banks.

Kuben is an activist and a public servant committed to achieving a socially just society. Before joining the SARB, Kuben was the Acting Head of the Secretariat for the National Planning Commission between 2010 and 2013. He also worked at National Treasury, where he headed the Budget Office from 2006 to 2010. He spent two years at the Treasury of the United Kingdom (UK) where he worked on the biannual spending reviews.

Kuben holds a BSc degree and a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Management from Wits University as well as an MBA from the University of Birmingham in the UK.

Speakers' biographies 
 
Speaker

Luiz de Mello
Director of the
Policy Studies Branch of
the  Economics Department 
Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development

Together with the policy studies teams, Luiz de Mello provides leadership and strategic direction within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Economics Department, ensuring the design and implementation of analysis and policies that promote stronger, cleaner, fairer and more inclusive economic growth for member and partner countries. Structural policy surveillance, short- and long-term economic outlooks, public finance and macroeconomic policy analysis are among the key workstreams for policy studies.

Earlier in his career, Luiz held senior positions at the OECD, including Deputy-Director of the Public Governance Directorate, and Chief of Staff and Counsellor to the Chief Economist. Prior to joining the OECD, he worked as a Senior Economist at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF, and as a Lecturer at the Economics Department of the University of Kent in the UK.

Luiz holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Kent.

Speaker

Suzi Kerr
Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Environmental Defense Fund

Suzi Kerr is a Senior Vice President and the Chief Economist at the Environmental Defense Fund.  She was, until May 2019, a Senior Fellow, and from 1998 to 2009, the Founding Director at Motu Research in New Zealand.

She has also worked at the University of Maryland, College Park; Resources for the Future (an independent, non-profit research institution in Washington, DC), and the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at MIT. 

She was a Visiting Professor at Stanford University for the 2009/10 financial year, and at the University of the Andes in Bogotá, Colombia in the first half of 2014. In 2018, she was President of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Her research work focuses on domestic and international climate-change mitigation policy with special emphasis on emissions pricing and natural climate solutions.

She is the leader of the international ‘Climate Action Teams’ initiative and a member of the advisory boards for the Climate Econometrics Group at Oxford and the International Emissions Trading Association’s ‘Markets for Natural Climate Solutions’ initiative. 

Suzi holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard University.

Q&A Chair

Fundi Tshazibana
Deputy Governor and CEO: Prudential Authority 
South African
Reserve Bank

Fundi Tshazibana is a deputy governor of the SARB, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Prudential Authority and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. The Prudential Authority regulates banks, insurers, cooperative financial institutions, financial conglomerates and certain market infrastructures. As CEO of the Prudential Authority, Fundi leads the Prudential Cluster of the SARB, which includes the Financial Surveillance Department and the departments within the Prudential Authority.

Before the rotation of the deputy governors on 1 April 2022, she oversaw the Financial Markets and International Cluster and chaired the Board of the Corporation for Public Deposits. Fundi joined the SARB in 2018 as Adviser to the Governor and was appointed as a deputy governor in 2019 by the President.

She is an economist with extensive experience in public policy formulation and analysis, having worked at multiple local and international institutions, including National Treasury, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) and the IMF.

At the IMF, she was an alternate executive director on the Executive Board, which runs the day-to-day operations of the IMF. Prior to joining the IMF, Fundi was a deputy director-general at National Treasury, where she was responsible for macroeconomic policy and economic forecasting. At NERSA, she worked as a senior policy analyst.

She holds a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) degree and a MCom degree in Economics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

 
Day 2: Friday, 1 September 2023
 

Speakers' biographies 
 
Speaker

Nicola Viegi
SARB Chair in
Monetary Policy Studies and
Head: Department of Economics
University of Pretoria

With a distinguished career spanning several decades, Nicola Viegi has made significant contributions through his research, teaching and leadership roles.  His research areas are monetary economics, economic policy theory, monetary fiscal policy interdependence, political economy of monetary institutions, economic policy under uncertainty assets prices and monetary policy, regional integration in Africa, political economy of government debt, the economics of colonisation and decolonisation, macromodelling for emerging countries, and economic growth and institutions.

A graduate of the Scottish Doctoral Program, he has worked at the University of Strathclyde as well as the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Cape Town as Associate Professor in Economics. He has held visiting positions at the Toulouse Business School, University of Malta, Fordham University and De Nederlandsche Bank. From 2007 to 2021 he held the position of Deputy Director of Economic Research Southern Africa and is currently coordinating the Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA)‒South African Modelling Network (SAMNet) programme, aimed at promoting South African macromodelling.

Speaker

 Edgar Sishi
Head: Budget Office
National Treasury

Edgar Sishi is the Deputy Director-General: Budget Office at the National Treasury of South Africa.

Previously, he was Acting Head of the Office of the Deputy Minister of Finance (2019–2020). Before that, he held the position of Senior Adviser on the Executive Board of the IMF from 2016 to 2019.

Edgar began his career in the public service in 2007 in the Intergovernmental Relations Division of the National Treasury, having previously worked as Regional Manager at Eskom since 1998.

He holds a Bachelor of Economics degree from Rhodes University and an MSc in Economic Policy from SOAS University of London.

Speaker

Thabi Leoka
Independent Economist

Thabi Leoka is an Economist who runs her own economic consulting and advisory company, Naha Investments. She is also affiliated with the Finance for Development Lab (FDL), a research institute based at the Paris School of Economics. Thabi has worked for various organisations in the financial sector for over 20 years. She was appointed to the Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019. Thabi sits on various corporate boards. She also sits on the Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) Council where she chairs the Economic Statistics Committee. She was appointed by the Minister of Finance in 2018 to review the zero-rated products in order to support the poor and vulnerable in South Africa. 

Thabi started her career as an Economist at Investec Asset Management in South Africa and London. She has also worked as an Emerging Markets Economist at Barclays Capital in London and Head of Economic Research, SA at Standard Bank, and the Chief Economist for SA at Renaissance Capital.

Thabi holds an MSc in Economics and Economic History from the London School of Economics, and an MA (Distinction) from Wits. Thabi was named the Economist of the Year 2017 by the Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals (ABSIP). She writes for various publications, both in South Africa and internationally.

Q&A Chair

Chris Loewald
Head: Economic Research Department
South African
Reserve Bank

Chris Loewald is the Head of Economic Research at the SARB, which is responsible for research, forecasting, global economic analysis, and the SARB’s Monetary Policy Review. He is a member of the SARB’s Monetary Policy and Financial Stability committees.

Prior to joining the SARB in 2011, he spent 13 years at National Treasury in various senior policy roles, including Acting Head of the Budget Office (2005‒06) and Deputy Director-General for Economic Policy (2006‒11).

He holds an MA and PhD in International Economics and European Studies from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Speakers' biographies 
 
Speaker

Gita Gopinath
First Deputy
Managing Director
International Monetary Fund

Gita Gopinath was appointed First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF with effect from 21 January 2022. In this role she oversees the work of staff; represents the IMF at multilateral forums; maintains high-level contacts with member governments and board members, the media, and other institutions; leads the IMF’s work on surveillance and related policies; and oversees research and flagship publications.

Gita previously served as the Chief Economist of the IMF from 2019 to 2022. In that role, she was the Economic Counsellor of the IMF and Director of its Research Department. She helmed 13 releases of the World Economic Outlook, including forecasts of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy. She co-authored the ‘Pandemic paper’ on how to end the COVID-19 pandemic that set globally endorsed targets for vaccinating the world and led to the creation of the Multilateral Task Force made up of the leadership of the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization and World Health Organization to help the establishment of a working group with vaccine manufacturers to identify trade barriers, supply bottlenecks and accelerate delivery of vaccines to low- and lower-middle income countries. She also worked with other IMF departments to connect with policymakers, academics and other stakeholders on a new analytical approach to help countries respond to international capital flows via the Integrated Policy Framework, and also helped set up a Climate Change Team inside the IMF to analyse, among other things, optimal climate mitigation policies.

Gita received her PhD in Economics from Princeton University in 2001, after earning a BA from Lady Shri Ram College and MA degrees from Delhi School of Economics and the University of Washington.

Q&A Chair

Fundi Tshazibana
Deputy Governor and CEO: Prudential Authority 
South African
Reserve Bank

Fundi Tshazibana is a deputy governor of the SARB, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Prudential Authority and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. The Prudential Authority regulates banks, insurers, cooperative financial institutions, financial conglomerates and certain market infrastructures. As CEO of the Prudential Authority, Fundi leads the Prudential Cluster of the SARB, which includes the Financial Surveillance Department and the departments within the Prudential Authority.

Before the rotation of the deputy governors on 1 April 2022, she oversaw the Financial Markets and International Cluster and chaired the Board of the Corporation for Public Deposits. Fundi joined the SARB in 2018 as Adviser to the Governor and was appointed as a deputy governor in 2019 by the President.

She is an economist with extensive experience in public policy formulation and analysis, having worked at multiple local and international institutions, including National Treasury, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) and the IMF.

At the IMF, she was an alternate executive director on the Executive Board, which runs the day-to-day operations of the IMF. Prior to joining the IMF, Fundi was a deputy director-general at National Treasury, where she was responsible for macroeconomic policy and economic forecasting. At NERSA, she worked as a senior policy analyst.

She holds a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) degree and a MCom degree in Economics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Speakers' biographies 
 
Panellist

Lesetja Kganyago
Governor
South African
Reserve Bank

Lesetja Kganyago was appointed Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) with effect from 9 November 2014. He was reappointed by the President of South Africa for a second five-year term with effect from 9 November 2019. Prior to his appointment as Governor, Lesetja served as Deputy Governor of the SARB from 16 May 2011 until his appointment as Governor.

Lesetja chairs the Committee of Central Bank Governors (CCBG) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and co-chairs the Financial Stability Board’s Cross-Border Payments Coordination Group (CPC) and Regional Consultative Group for Sub-Saharan Africa (RGG-SSA). In addition, he served as the Chairperson of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, which is the primary advisory board to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Board of Governors, from 18 January 2018 to 17 January 2021.

Before joining the SARB, Lesetja was the Director-General of the National Treasury of South Africa. He represented South Africa at international organisations such as the World Bank, the IMF, the Group of Twenty (G20) and the African Development Bank. In this role, he served as the Chair of the Development Committee Deputies and co-chaired a G20 Working Group on the reform of the IMF.

He holds an MSc in Economics from SOAS University of London, a BCom degree in Economics and Accounting from the University of South Africa as well as DCom degrees from Stellenbosch University and the Nelson Mandela University. He has also received various training in finance, economics and management.

Panellist

Gita Gopinath
First Deputy
Managing Director
International Monetary Fund

Gita Gopinath was appointed First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF with effect from 21 January 2022. In this role she oversees the work of staff; represents the IMF at multilateral forums; maintains high-level contacts with member governments and board members, the media, and other institutions; leads the IMF’s work on surveillance and related policies; and oversees research and flagship publications.

Gita previously served as the Chief Economist of the IMF from 2019 to 2022. In that role, she was the Economic Counsellor of the IMF and Director of its Research Department. She helmed 13 releases of the World Economic Outlook, including forecasts of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy. She co-authored the ‘Pandemic paper’ on how to end the COVID-19 pandemic that set globally endorsed targets for vaccinating the world and led to the creation of the Multilateral Task Force made up of the leadership of the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization and World Health Organization to help the establishment of a working group with vaccine manufacturers to identify trade barriers, supply bottlenecks and accelerate delivery of vaccines to low- and lower-middle income countries. She also worked with other IMF departments to connect with policymakers, academics and other stakeholders on a new analytical approach to help countries respond to international capital flows via the Integrated Policy Framework, and also helped set up a Climate Change Team inside the IMF to analyse, among other things, optimal climate mitigation policies.

Gita received her PhD in Economics from Princeton University in 2001, after earning a BA from Lady Shri Ram College and MA degrees from Delhi School of Economics and the University of Washington.

Panellist

Raphael Bostic
President and Chief Executive Officer
Federal Reserve
Bank of Atlanta

Raphael W Bostic took office on 5 June 2017 as the 15th President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He is responsible for all the Bank's activities, including monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation and payment services. In 2024 he will serve as a voting member on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the monetary policymaking body of the Federal Reserve System.

Before joining the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Raphael served as the Judith and John Bedrosian Chair in Governance and the Public Enterprise at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California (USC). Before that, he served as a Professor in USC’s School of Policy, Planning and Development. His research spanned many fields, including home ownership, housing finance, neighbourhood change, and the role of institutions in shaping policy effectiveness. He was Director of USC's Master of Real Estate Development degree programmme and was the founding director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast.

Raphael graduated from Harvard University with a combined major in Economics and Psychology. He earned his PhD in Economics from Stanford University.

Panellist

Huw Pill
Chief Economist and Executive Director for
Monetary Analysis
and Research 
Bank of England

Huw Pill is the Bank of England’s (BoE) Chief Economist and Executive Director for Monetary Analysis and Research. He is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. Huw is responsible for the analysis used to make monetary policy decisions. He also leads the research that supports all of the BoE’s other functions.

Previously, Huw was the Chief European Economist at Goldman Sachs (2011‒18). Before that, he worked at the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. During his tenure at the ECB he served as the Deputy Director of Research (2009‒11), Head of the Monetary Policy Stance Division (2004‒09) and worked in the Strategic Policy Issues Unit (1998‒2001).

Huw was also a member of the faculty at Harvard Business School (1995‒98, 2001‒04, 2019‒21). At the start of his career, he worked as an economist in the BoE’s then Economics Division (1990‒92).

Huw has a BA (Hons) from the University of Oxford and an MA and PhD from Stanford University.

Q&A Chair

Rashad Cassim
Deputy Governor 
South African
Reserve Bank

Rashad Cassim is a deputy governor of the SARB and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee and Financial Stability Committee. He oversees the Financial Markets and International Cluster, responsible for financial markets, international economic relations and policy, and legal services. Before the rotation of deputy governors on 1 April 2022, he oversaw the Financial Stability and Currency Cluster. He was also the Chairperson of the Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics under the auspices of the BIS for a three-year period between 2019 and 2022.

Before his appointment as Deputy Governor, Rashad was the Head of the Economic Research and Statistics Department, responsible for macroeconomic statistics, research, analysis and forecasting. Prior to joining the SARB, he served as the Deputy Director-General at Statistics South Africa, responsible for economic statistics.  Before that, he was a professor and Head of the School of Economics and Business Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). He has also held various research and academic positions at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Rashad holds a PhD in Economics from UCT.