Ignazio Visco

Email: IGNAZIO.VISCO@bancaditalia.it


Ignazio Visco is Deputy Director General and Member of the Governing Board of the Bank of Italy. He is also G7 and G20 Central Bank Deputy, Chairman of the ESCB International Relations Committee, and an alternate member of the BIS Board of Directors. He has been at the Bank of Italy since 1974, and was the Head of the Research Department from 1990 to 1997 and the Managing Director for International Affairs and for Economic Research between March 2004 and December 2006. Between 1997 and 2002 he was the Chief Economist and Head of the Economics Department of the OECD in Paris.




Papers Published in World Economics:


Global Imbalances, the Financial Crisis and the International Monetary System
Author: Ignazio Visco

Even though the proximate causes of the crisis lie in previous financial excesses, the extent to which these have developed owes much to fundamental sources of vulnerability present in the global macroeconomic environment. However, imbalances and asset price misalignments went on basically unchecked, reflecting a climate of general macroeconomic optimism and the confidence in the ability of policymakers to cope with critical conditions in financial markets. The limits of the existing policy set-up, the main challenges ahead and the importance of rebalancing global demand in order to achieve a more sustainable pattern of economic growth at the world level are examined in this article. The risks of disorderly exchange rate movements and possible implications for the international monetary system are considered, and the exit from the exceptional monetary and fiscal stimulus currently in place are discussed, with the view that while supporting the recovery care should be taken not to create new sources of financial instability.

Read Full Paper >