Geneva, 20 April 1999
ECE/GEN/99/2
THE IMPACT OF THE
GLOBAL FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE UN/ECE REGION TO
BE DISCUSSED AT THE 54TH SESSION OF
THE COMMISSION
4 - 6 May 1999
For three days, the 55 member
States of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
(UN/ECE) will meet for the annual session of the Commission at
the Palais des Nations in Geneva. It has become a tradition that
the first day of the Commission session concentrates on an
in-depth discussion of the economic situation of the
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)
region. Eminent economists and policy makers lead the discussion.
Three major, related topics are going to be at the centre of the
discussions on 4th May: the impact of the global financial and
economic crisis on the UN/ECE region, with special emphasis on
western and central Europe; overcoming the crisis of the Russian
economy; and the threats to the transition process in other
economies.
The discussion on "the impact of the global financial and economic
crisis on the ECE region, with special emphasis on western and
central Europe" will offer a diagnosis of the causes of the
crisis, its likely effects on economic growth in the region and
the extent to which they may be offset by policy responses, and
ask whether such shocks can be avoided or at least mitigated in
the future.
This session will be chaired by Miroslav
Somol (Czech Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva
and President of the Commission). Jorge Braga de Macedo (Professor, Nova University, Lisbon, former Minister of Finance,
Portugal, and former EC Director General); Christian de
Boissieu (Professor, La Sorbonne, Paris); Antonio Costa (Secretary General, EBRD); László Csaba (Budapest
University of Economics and KOPINT-DATORG); and Daniel Gottlieb (Senior Adviser to the Governor of the Bank of Israel) will act
as discussion leaders.
The discussion of the second
topic, namely "Overcoming the crisis of the Russian
economy", will start from the fact that the
proximate causes of the August 1998 crisis were located in the
fiscal imbalance and in the way the market for government
debt was managed. The ECE secretariat, however, has argued
that the crisis reflects a more radical failure to reform the
country=s economic and political institutions to
restructure the enterprise sector and so lay the basis for a
sustained economic recovery. Is this analysis correct? If so, how
can a programme be designed to deal with both the problems of
short-run stabilization and the longer term question of
institutional reform? What is required to obtain support for such
a programme from western governments and the international
economic institutions?
This session will be chaired by Antonio
Costa (Secretary General, EBRD). Grzegorz Kolodko,
(Professor at Warsaw School of Economics, Deputy Premier and
Minister of Finance of Poland, 1994-97); Jorge Márquez-Ruarte (Deputy Director, Europe II Department, IMF); Alexsander
Shokhin (Deputy of the State Duma of Russia, former Deputy
Prime Minister, Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economy); Andrei Swinarenko (Deputy Minister of Economics of the Russian Federation); and Mikhail Zadornov (Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation) will act as
discussion leaders.
The third session will
concentrate on the "threats to the transition process in other
economies". It is clear that while some transition
economies have moved strongly ahead with basic reforms and are
now seeing high rates of growth of output and fixed investment,
others are falling behind and often showing signs of increasing
economic stress. Are the roots of these problems sui generis or do they reflect a more general set of problems relating to
basic economic transformation? Can anything be learned from the
Russian experience to avoid or diminish the impact of
transformation crises elsewhere? What are the policy alternatives
open to such countries at present and what are the lessons for
the international community in their efforts to assist the
transition process in these economies?
Bernhard Molitor (Chairman, OECD Economic Development and Review Committee) will
chair this session. Daniel Daianu (former Minister of
Finance of Romania and President of the Romanian Institute for
Free Enterprise); Lutz Hoffmann (President, DIW, Berlin); Igor
Mitiukov (Minister of Finance of Ukraine); Brigita Schmögnerová (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Slovak Republic);
and Timo Summa (Director, Directorate-General IA, European
Commission) will act as discussion leaders.
The session and discussions
are open to the public.
For further information
please contact:
Economic Analysis
Division
United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)
Palais des Nations
CH B 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Tel: (+41 22) 917 27 18
Fax: (+41 22) 917 03 09
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.unece.org/ead/ead_h.htm