Are central bank balance sheets in Asia too large?

This volume is a collection of the speeches, background papers and presentations from a conference on "Central bank balance sheets in Asia and the Pacific: the policy challenges ahead". The event was co-hosted by the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and was held on 12-13 December 2011 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Senior officials from central banks, as well as academic scholars and economists from the BIS attended the conference. The formal addresses included those from Prasarn Trairatvorakul, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, and Jaime Caruana, General Manager of the BIS. The conference marked the culmination of a two-year research programme at the BIS Representative Office for Asia and the Pacific focused on central bank balance sheets, addressing the domestic and international implications of the large expansion of central bank balance sheets worldwide, with particular emphasis on Asia. This two-year research programme is a flagship activity of the BIS Representative Office; the activities in the office are guided by the Asian Consultative Council, comprising the Governors of the 12 BIS shareholding central banks in the region. ¹

¹ Those of Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Welcome remarks

	Title	Languages
	Welcome remarks by Prasarn Trairatvorakul	EN

Keynote remarks

	Title	Languages
	Why central bank balance sheets matter by Jaime Caruana	EN

Background papers

	Title	Languages
	Key facts on central bank balance sheets in Asia and the Pacific by Andrew Filardo and James Yetman	EN
	Expanding central bank balance sheets in emerging Asia: a compendium of risks and some evidence by David Cook and James Yetman	EN
	Central bank balance sheets and foreign exchange rate regimes: understanding the nexus in Asia by Andrew Filardo and Stephen Grenville	EN
	On the use of sterilisation bonds in emerging Asia by Aaron Mehrotra	EN

Contributed papers

	Title	Languages
	Central bank balance sheet expansion: Japan's experience by Kazumasa Iwata and Shinji Takenaka	EN
	Comments on Kazumasa Iwata and Shinji Takenaka's paper "Central bank balance sheets expansion: Japan's experience" by Shinji Takagi	EN
	Mark M Spiegel Comments on Kazumasa Iwata and Shinji Takenaka's paper "Central bank balance sheets expansion: Japan's experience" by Mark M Spiegel	EN
	Global imbalances and foreign asset expansion by developing-economy central banks by Joseph Gagnon	EN
	Comments on Joseph Gagnon's paper "Global imbalances and foreign asset expansion by developing-economy central banks" by Chris Aylmer	EN
	Comments on Joseph Gagnon's paper "Global imbalances and foreign asset expansion by developing-economy central banks" by Ooi Sang Kuang	EN
	Central Bank balance sheets as policy tools by Alain Durré and Huw Pill	EN
	Comments on A Durré and H Pill's paper "Central bank balance sheets as policy tools" by Hernando Vargas	EN
	Comments on A Durré and H Pill's paper "Central bank balance sheets as policy tools" by Budianto Soenaryo Mukasan	EN
	International spillovers of central bank balance sheet policies by Qianying Chen, Andrew Filardo, Dong He and Feng Zhu	EN
	Comments on Qianying Chen, Andrew Filardo, Dong He and Feng Zhu's paper "The impact of central bank balance sheet policies on the emerging economies" by Jonathan Batten and Peter G Szilagyi	EN
	Comments on Qianying Chen, Andrew Filardo, Dong He and Feng Zhu's paper "International spillovers of central bank balance sheet policies" by Roong Mallikamas	EN
	Changes in central bank balance sheets in response to the crisis: Dinner address for the BOT-BIS research conference by Randall Kroszner	EN
	Reserves, liquidity and money: an assessment of balance sheet policies by Jagjit S Chadha, Luisa Corrado and Jack Meaning	EN
	Sovereign debt management and the central bank: an emerging market perspective by Sanjay Hansda	EN
	Debt and monetary policy: comments on Jagjit S Chadha, Luisa Corrado and Jack Meaning's paper "Reserves, liquidity and money: an assessment of balance sheet policies", and further thoughts by Alec Chrystal	EN

Policy panel

	Title	Languages
	Dealing with volatile capital flows in Korea by Myung Hun Kang	EN
	Regional challenges ahead - dealing with capital flows, prolonged exchange rate intervention and their consequences in Asia and the Pacific by Prasarn Trairatvorakul	EN

Wrap-up panel discussion

	Title	Languages
	Wrap-up panel discussion by Andrew Sheng, Athanasios Orphanides and Randall Kroszner	EN