Per Jacobsson Foundation Lecture
Lecture delivered by Mr Ignazio Visco, former Governor of the Bank of Italy, on the occasion of the Bank's Annual General Meeting, Basel, 30 June 2024.
Abstract
After three decades of price stability in most advanced economies, the sharp rise in inflation in 2021–22 took both the public and policymakers by surprise. After about two years of monetary tightening, inflation has come down significantly and the 2% target is now in sight, albeit more so for some economies than others.
Two main issues have been discussed in this lecture. The first concerned the supposed failure of monetary policy to prevent, or initially contain, the inflationary shock. The second focused on monetary policy's role and effectiveness in promoting the return to price stability. In particular, differences in the response of aggregate demand and anticipated inflation have been considered, and different views on the conduct of monetary policy have been addressed.
Ignazio Visco was Governor of the Bank of Italy from November 2011 to October 2023. He joined the Bank in 1972 and became Head of the Research Department in 1990 and Deputy Governor in 2007. From 1997 to 2002 he was Chief Economist and Head of the Economics Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and is the author of numerous articles and books, including Price expectations in rising inflation (North Holland, 1984), Saving and the Accumulation of Wealth (with Albert Ando and Luigi Guiso, Cambridge University Press, 1994) and, most recently, Inflazione e politica monetaria (Laterza, 2023).