The President of the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association – EMEA, and Director of the Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies – EMNES, Prof. Rym Ayadi participated at the 8th edition of the Atlantic Dialogues which were held from December 12 to 14, 2019, under the theme “The South in the Time of Turmoil”.
Since its inception in 2012, the Atlantic Dialogues (AD) conference has become a well-established annual meeting point taking place in Marrakesh, bringing together around 350 high-level senior officials, business leaders, academics, opinion shapers and civil society actors.
Prof. Ayadi participated at the Plenary “The next financial crisis”, along with Otaviano Canuto, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South; Harinder Kohli, Founding Director and Chief Executive, Emerging Markets Forum and Founding Director, President and CEO, Centennial Group International, and Edward Scicluna, Minister of Finance, Malta. The discussion was moderated by Alan Kasujja, Lead Presenter, Newsday, BBC News.
Some of the key questions that were discussed:
- Where are the key rising vulnerabilities in the global financial system, and are we on the verge of the next financial crisis?
- Has the rise in debt of emerging and frontier markets spurred by global low interest rates and availability of external finance been matched with corresponding asset creation?
- To what extent has heightened trade and policy uncertainty affected financial flows?
- What should policymakers do to address rising financial vulnerabilities?
Prof. Ayadi warned that “protracted lax monetary policy resulting to low to negative interest rates is pushing banks to take further risks and to change their business models to keep their profitability afloat. Excessive risk taking in a context of relaxed bank regulation in addition to venturing in uncertain business models will increase systemic risk and financial instabilities.” She also highlighted the need to furthering debt transparency in particular in Low Income Countries experiencing a higher level of external debt.
