Facing the Aftermath: Asia Europe Economic Forum

Background

The outlook of the world economy has improved since the second half of 2009. There is prospect of financial and economic recovery. However, the question is how to ensure that it is sustainable. The US economy is still so weak to be an importer of the last resort. The European economy seems to have been dragged down by the economic problems experienced by Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain. Emerging economies in Eastern Europe are still in the doldrums. Japan is also expected to take a long time to return to stable growth. Emerging economies in Asia is relatively strong, especially including PRC, India and Korea, but with greater uncertainty due to weak global economic conditions and financial vulnerability.

Against this backdrop, there are many remaining important issues in post crisis era, including economic recovery and exit strategies, rebalancing growth, currency adjustments in the world. It is time to discuss withdrawal of the substantial fiscal stimulus and monetary easing. However, the task that most economies in the world confront now is one of coordinating the composition and timing of their policies so that the world economy progressively gains in strength while the long-term health of public finances does not threaten the recovery process.

The problem of recovery in the world economy is providing the impetus for a resurgence of global imbalances. In order to achieve stable economic growth path, it is needed to prevent serious global imbalances. Moreover, the exchange rate adjustment from the recovery among major currency will be important issues in years to come. Lastly, the G-20 framework process is important for policy coordination. the G20 has primarily served as a vehicle for mobilizing support for policy coordination. Developing countries have become more active and assertive in the G20 as the network has matured, and in two instances they made original contributions to the global policy agenda. But so far, the benefits of these initiatives have been modest.

This conference will give some light on the above-mentioned issues not only from Asian and European perspective. The Asia Europe Economic Forum has been jointly organized by its members: Bruegel, CEPII, and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) on the European side; Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Keio University, and Korea University on the Asian side. It brings together a broad range of participants including active and former senior policymakers, recognized academic experts and private sector specialists.

Back to Top

Objectives

The conference will assess the global recovery to identify whether current optimistic views on the global economy will be sustained. In addition, it will discuss the issues on exit strategies, rebalancing growth, and the currency adjustments in post-crisis era. Lastly it will stress the institutional aspect of the G-20 in dealing all policy coordination for the issues in post-crisis era. The four major areas included in this conference are:

1. Growth Recovery and Exit strategies.
2. Reforms to Rebalance World Growth
3. Dollar Weakness, Euro Stress, Asian Uncertainty: Currency confusion
4. the Future of the G20

Back to Top

Outputs

This activity will produce:

1. Conference proceedings and
2. ADBI Working Papers

Back to Top

Partners

Bruegel, CEPII, and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Keio University, and Korea University.