“History of Inflation” Conference at the CNB
The “History of Inflation” will be the main theme of an international conference of the European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH). The conference, intended mainly for economic and financial historians, will be held at the CNB’s Congress Centre on 15 May.
The speakers will include world-famous US economist Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, Jean-Pierre Roth, former Chairman of the Swiss National Bank, and Jean Pierre Landau, former Deputy Governor of Banque de France.
“We use monetary policy primarily to influence the future, but we cannot succeed in this without knowledge of history. Moreover, it is hard to imagine a topic closer to central bankers’ hearts than inflation. It is therefore an honour for us to host such an important conference,” said CNB Vice-Governor Mojmír Hampl, who will open the conference.
The speakers will also include Harold James, renowned historian and professor at Princeton University, and Professor Forrest Capie, who has published numerous books on the history of the Bank of England.
In addition to the CNB, which will also be represented by speaker Vice-Governor Vladimír Tomšík, the conference is co-organised by the Czech Banking Association, represented by its Chief Economist Eva Zamrazilová.
The EABH has been holding this event annually since its establishment in 1990. This year’s conference, whose main theme will be inflation and its history, will be divided into two main parts: a closed workshop for archivists, dealing with statistics as historical sources, and the conference itself, focusing on the history of inflation.
EABH conferences are held all over Europe and tend to focus on comparing historical economic phenomena with the present. Although targeted at archivists and historians of financial institutions, they are also regularly attended by economists interested in financial history.
CNB spokesman
Tomáš Zimmermann