BIS chief says new policies needed to enhance resilience of private firms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many of the macroeconomic policies that governments have pursued during the COVID-19 pandemic have hit their limits and a new approach to enhance the resilience of private firms

February 15, 2022

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Many of the macroeconomic policies that governments have pursued during the COVID-19 pandemic have hit their limits and a new approach to enhance the resilience of private firms is needed, the head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said on Tuesday.

Agustin Carstens, BIS general manager, told a World Bank online event that easy monetary and fiscal policies are being curtailed, and central banks had the tools to achieve a “soft landing” to bring inflation under control.

“I think that now we need to move more into more focused and targeted type of policies that can enhance the resiliency of firms — not of all of them because we know that they have been sectoral shifts, shifts in demand and so on and some firms regretfully will not be viable,” Carstens said. “We need to be able to support employment, so that so that employment supports a consumption.”

(Reporting by David Lawder and Andrea Shalal)