Capacity Development Talk: Tailoring Macro Analytical Tools to A Small Island State

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Location: Cedar Hall, HQ1-1-660

OVERVIEW

Competing priorities and scarce time are common obstacles to rigorous policy analysis in small island states. The Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten recently tackled these challenges in partnership with the IMF’s Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre by adopting the new Macroeconomic Frameworks Foundations Tool (MFT) developed by the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development to streamline this work. The MFT runs in a single Excel file with as few as three tabs requiring less than 100 data series to provide a consistent analytical and projection framework. The tool’s simplicity along with an enthusiastic collaboration between the central bank’s staff and management and IMF’s regional (The Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre) team in all aspects of its development (gathering data, calibrating equations, building out the fiscal sector, and assessing simulation properties) has resulted in the MFT’s wide adoption in conducting medium-term projections and risk analyses.

 

MODERATOR

 

  

Patrick Blagrave, Macroeconomics Advisor, IMF’s Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC)

Patrick Blagrave is currently serving as the Macroeconomics Advisor at the IMF’s Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC), located in Barbados. In this capacity, he coordinates a workplan providing technical assistance and training to government and central bank staff of 23 member countries, in the areas of macroeconomic analysis and forecasting. Previously, as a senior economist in the IMF’s Asia and Pacific and Research Departments, he made regular contributions to the World Economic Outlook, and was a member of the IMF’s India and Nepal country teams. Mr. Blagrave began his career as an economist at the Bank of Canada, in 2006.

SPEAKERS

 

  

 

Richard Doornbosch, President, Centrale Bank van Curaçao & Sint Maarten (CBCS)

Richard Doornbosch is President of the Centrale Bank van Curaçao & Sint Maarten (CBCS) since august 2020. Previously, he was an Alternate Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund. After starting his career as a management trainee at Rabobank International, he held several positions at the Dutch Ministry of Finance. He participated in international consultations, such as those held by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and IMFC Deputies. From 2005 to 2008, he worked at the OECD in Paris on the international policy response to the increasing risks of climate change. He acted as a negotiator on behalf of the Netherlands in shaping the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and was a board member on the first GCF Board. In 1998 he earned his master’s degree in Economics and in Business Administration from the University of Groningen.

  

Amgad Hegazy, Senior Economist, Institute of Capacity Development, IMF

Amgad Hegazy is a Senior Economist in ICD’s General Macro and Fiscal Division. He joined the IMF in 2012, in the Middle East and Central Asia Department, working on both surveillance and program countries covering fragile states, oil exporters and the Gulf Cooperation Council, G-20, and the Caucus and Central Asia region. He then moved to the European Department before joining ICD. Prior to the IMF, he served as a public servant in his home country, Egypt. His policy and research interests include work on macro-fiscal topics, medium-term debt sustainability, and reforms of public administration, state-owned enterprises, tax and customs policy, food and electricity subsidies, economic diversification, sustainable growth, and regional crisis and spillovers. He delivered technical assistance and training to countries in the past. Amgad holds a BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo—Egypt, and a MSc in International Economics from the University of York—United Kingdom.

PHOTOS