Lesetja Kganyago: Principled agents - reflections on central bank independence

Text of the 19th annual Stavros Niarchos Foundation lecture by Mr Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington DC, 15 April 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Central bank speech  | 
30 April 2019
by Lesetja Kganyago
PDF full text
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  |  19 pages

I am honoured to be here, but I am not sure if I should be happy. The Stavros Niarchos lectures tackle major world problems. In 2016, David Lipton discussed the backlash against globalisation. In 2017, Mervyn King explored global macroeconomic imbalances. Last year, Tharman Shanmugaratnam looked at wage stagnation and the decline of social mobility. This year I have been invited to discuss central bank independence.

There's a pattern here. Central banks must be in trouble.

Looking around the world, there are signs of this trouble in many places - including advanced economies, where institutional stability can no longer be taken for granted.