Webex
15:00-16:30 CET
The global economy proved resilient to shocks, from tariffs to the war in Iran, aided by AI-driven investment and optimism that supported spending and accommodative financial conditions. Yet risks have intensified: the war’s inflationary scars could persist, and the AI boom’s durability is uncertain. These vulnerabilities add to existing financial imbalances and elevated public debt. Central banks confront a tighter fiscal–financial nexus as high public debt meets a larger role for leveraged non-banks in sovereign markets. This amplifies stress transmission, making swings in sovereign yields more frequent and abrupt, tightening financial conditions and unsettling inflation expectations. Elevated debt complicates monetary transmission and raises the likelihood of the need for interventions to address market dysfunction.
Lessons from the BIS Annual Economic Report 2026
BIS Annual Economic Report 2026, Chapter I, Progress and peril
Frank Smets, Acting Head of Monetary and Economic Department & Head of Economic Analysis and Statistics · BIS & SUERF Fellow presentationDiscussant remarks on Chapter I of the BIS Annual Economic Report 2026
Era Dabla-Norris, Deputy Director, Fiscal Affairs Department · IMF presentationChapter 2: High public debt and shifting financial markets: challenges for central banks
Gaston Gelos, Deputy Head of the Monetary and Economic Department & Head of Financial Stability Policy · BIS presentationDiscussion of High Public Debt and Shifting Financial Markets: Challenges for Central Banks
Filiz Unsal, Deputy Director of the Policy and Research Branch in the Economics Department · OECD & SUERF Fellow presentationQ&A Session
