2014-10-11
The Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, V. Vasiliauskas, will meet with the Vice-Chairman of the US Central Bank — the Federal Reserve System
On Saturday, 11 October, in Washington DC, Vitas Vasiliauskas, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, will meet with Stanley Fischer, Vice-Chairman of the Federal Reserve System (FRS) — the US Central Bank. During the meeting it is planned to discuss the actions of the US and euro area country central banks in seeking balanced economic development. This is the first such high-level meeting between the heads of the Bank of Lithuania and the FRS.
“The shapers of monetary policy on both sides of the Atlantic are currently encountering various challenges, but the tasks for both are the same — to contribute to sustainable economic development,” said V. Vasiliauskas.
He noted that economic expansion in the euro area remains subdued, therefore the European Central Bank (ECB), which is encountering the challenge of low inflation, in seeking to revitalise the funding of the real economy, recently began to apply new accommodative monetary policy measures. In turn, the FRS decreases the extent of quantitative easing programmes and plans to tighten monetary policy, because the economic recovery of the US is gaining a more solid foundation.
“The ECB and the FRS are the world’s largest central banks, their decisions have a significant impact on the global economy, therefore in the agenda of the meeting it is planned to discuss the effect that the FRS and ECB monetary policy has on international financial markets, price stability and economic development,” claimed the head of the Bank of Lithuania, who, as of January 2015 will become a member of the ECB Governing Council.
S. Fischer became Vice-Chairman of the FRS in May 2014. Prior to this he was Governor of the Central Bank of Israel, Vice-Chairman of Citigroup and First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, taking part in the IMF and World Bank’s annual events in Washington, on Saturday will also meet with Poul Thomsen, Director of the IMF’s European Department and will participate in the meeting of the heads of the Baltic countries’ central banks.