FCC club lunch with Eswar PRASAD

Speaker: Eswar PRASAD
The Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University

Topic: Will the Renminbi Rule the World?

Professor PRASAD, previously Chief of the International Monetary Fund’s China Division, will evaluate the steps China has taken to promote the international use of the renminbi and its prospects of becoming a global reserve currency. China faces two major challenges on this front. First, getting the sequencing of capital account opening right relative to other policies such as exchange rate flexibility and financial market development. Second, financial market reforms — strengthening the banking system; developing deep and liquid government and corporate bond markets, as well as foreign exchange spot and derivative markets. He will also cover other developments in currency markets — especially those concerning the dollar and euro — and provide some perspectives on the configuration of the international monetary system.

Eswar PRASAD is the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University, New Century Chair in International Economics at the Brookings Institution, and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His report on “The Renminbi’s Role in the Global Monetary System” (with Lei Ye) was published by the Brookings Institution in February 2012. He is the creator of the Brookings-Financial Times world index (TIGER: Tracking Indices for the Global Economic Recovery).