Argentine Economist Roberto Frenkel Joins CEPR, Releases Paper on Central Bank Intervention in Exchange Markets

For Immediate Release: February 7, 2007

Contact: Dan Beeton: 202-293-5380 ext. 104

Washington, DC: The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is pleased to introduce its newest Senior Research Associate, economist Roberto Frenkel, and to release his recent article, Argentina: The Central Bank in the Foreign Exchange Market.

About the article: Argentina's economy has grown more than 45 percent, averaging about 8.6 percent annually, since its recovery began in the second quarter of 2002. The speed and duration of the recovery has repeatedly surprised many observers, since Argentina followed a number of unorthodox economic policies in its recovery, and paid relatively little of its defaulted debt to foreign creditors.

This article takes a looks at some of the details of one of those policies: the Central Bank's intervention in foreign exchange markets. This policy, which goes against the commonly held view that central banks should focus almost exclusively on containing inflation, played a major role in Argentina's economic recovery. The original article (in Spanish) was published in La Nación on December 31, 2006.

About Roberto Frenkel: Roberto Frenkel has been Principal Research Associate at the Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (Center for the Study of State and Society, CEDES) in Buenos Aires since 1977 and Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires since 1984. Presently he is also Director of the Graduate Program on Capital Markets and teaches graduate courses at the Di Tella and FLACSO-San Andrés universities. He is a member of the United Nations Development Program Advisers Group; member of the Board of the World Institute for Development Economic Research, United Nations University; and member of the Academic Council of the Centro de Economía y Finanzas para el Desarrollo de la Argentina. He has published numerous books and articles in academic journals on macroeconomic theory and policy, money and finance, inflation and stabilization policies and labor market and income distribution, with special focus on Argentina and Latin America.