Seminar on the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation
September, 1959, Washington D.C., U.S.A.

CEMLA since 1952 is the Association of Central Banks of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Our main objectives are: To promote a better understanding of monetary and banking matters; help with improving the training of central bank staff; conduct research and systematize the results, and provide information to members about events of international and regional interest in the areas of monetary and financial policies.

Calendar of
Activities 2024

News

Call for Papers: 2024 Latin American Journal of Central Banking (LAJCB) Conference


The Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) is pleased to announce the second edition of the Latin American Journal of Central Banking (LAJCB) Conference, to be held on May 23-24, 2024, at CEMLA's headquarters in Mexico City. CEMLA invites paper contributions covering topics of interest to central banking, including, but not limited to, monetary theory and policy, financial intermediation (both theory and empirics), climate-related aspects of financial stability and monetary policy, digitalization and financial markets, and payments and market infrastructures. Paper submissions are welcome until March 22, 2024, through the email address: conference@cemla.org.


The Conference is open to papers that may or may not seek to be published in the LAJCB. As with other events organized by CEMLA, this Conference offers a unique opportunity to hear about recent developments in central banking issues from leading academic scholars and policymakers. In this edition, CEMLA is delighted to announce the participation of Professors Allen N. Berger (University of South Carolina) and David Argente (Yale University) as Keynote Speakers.

 

Call for Papers: 2024 CEMLA Central Bank Award


The Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) is pleased to announce that the Call for Papers for the 2024 CEMLA Central Bank Award (Central Bank Award Rodrigo Gómez) is now open.  Paper submissions are welcome until April 26, 2024, through the email address: award@cemla.org. In this edition, CEMLA will award the first place a total of 15,000 U.S. dollars, the second place, 5,000 U.S. dollars, and the third place, 2,500 U.S. dollars. This edition also contemplates granting an Honorary Mention to a maximum of 8 papers (1,000 U.S. dollars each). For more information about this Call for Papers, please visit https://www.cemla.org/centralbankaward.html.

 

CEMLA hosts the IV Central Banks Conference on Environmental Risks


CEMLA’s Directorate of Financial Stability organized the IV Central Banks Conference on Environmental Risks conference. The conference was held in hybrid format with location in Mexico City on December 14-15, 2023. The total attendees were 135 representatives .


The conference provided an overview of the policy tools available to central banks and financial supervisors for governing sustainable finance. Sharing and learning from best international practices are essential steps that contribute to the regional sustainable finance agenda. This conference brought together senior representatives from central banks and financial regulators and supervisors.

 

CEMLA hosts the course of Central banking and climate-related financial risks (Climate Risk Academy)


CEMLA’s Directorate of Financial Stability, UNEP-FI, EUROCLIMA and the Florence School of Banking and Finance organized the Central banking and climate-related financial risks (Climate Risk Academy) course. The course was held in person format with location in Mexico City on December 11-13, 2023.


The course familiarized participants with the definition of climate-related risks and their interlinkages with financial risks as traditionally intended. It will explore the impact of climate change on assets’ price and value (and subsequently on banks’ balance sheets) as well as on the broader macroeconomic context. The agenda, available here, included a session by experts from the Florence School of Banking and Finance, European Central Bank and Utrecht University’s School of Economics.

 

Research seminar - Incomplete Supervisory Cooperation, Wolf Wagner


CEMLA’s Directorate of Financial Stability organized Research seminar held by Wolf Wagner from Rotterdam School of Management and CEPR were he presented his academic paper titled:” Incomplete Supervisory Cooperation”. The conference was held in hybrid format with location in Mexico City on November 28th, 2023. The total attendees were 38 representatives.

 

Remittances exceed ten percentage points of GDP in five Mexican states

Jesús A. Cervantes González & Denisse Jiménez, Nota de Remesas 13/2023

This note measures remittances in relation to GDP in Mexico's states by 2022, and quantifies how much they increase the income of households that receive them in five regions of the country. In Mexico, there are strong differences in per capita GDP across states.  In 2022, the per capita GDP of Nuevo León was 4.9 times that of Chiapas, 3.7 times that of Guerrero, 3.3 times that of Oaxaca and 2.4 times that of Michoacán.

Remittances reach very high percentages with respect to GDP in the states with the lowest levels of per capita product. This means that remittances contribute to moderating the differentials between the per capita GDP across of the country's states and that the states with the lowest per capita GDP have been the main expellers of migrants abroad.

In 2022, Mexico's income from remittances was equivalent to 5.6 percentage points of private consumption, but this income was only received by 13.6 percent of households. This implies that remittances were the source of financing for 41.2 percent of the consumption expenditure of Mexican households that received these resources from abroad.

 

CEMLA hosts the XXVIII Meeting of the Central Bank Researchers Network


The XXVIII Meeting of the Central Bank Researchers Network took place on November 9 and 10, 2023 at the CEMLA's headquarters in Mexico City. The event brought together scholars, policymakers, and professionals to discuss essential topics in central banking. Keynote Lectures were given by Michele Boldrin (Washington University in Saint Louis) and Saki Bigio (UCLA). The program featured 27 research papers corresponding to 85 authors in 9 sessions, divided into 4 parallel sessions. The sessions covered the following subjects: inflation expectations; monetary policy: theory; credit; exchange rate; inflation; financial modeling; monetary policy: empirics; financial flows and payments; and macroeconomics: labor and trade.

 

Winners of the 2023 Central Bank Award Rodrigo Gómez


CEMLA's Board of Governors decided to grant the First Place of the 2023 Central Bank Award Rodrigo Gómez to two studies: “The Transmission of Non-Banking Liquidity Shocks to the Banking Sector” by Néstor Miguel Sarmiento Paipilla, and “GDP Nowcasting: A machine learning and remote sensing data-based approach for Bolivia” by Osmar Bolivar Rosales. In turn, the Board of Governors recognized Benjamín García Silva, Mario Giarda Ugalde, Carlos Lizama Sáez and Ignacio Rojas King with the Second Place Award for their study “A Baseline HANK for Chile”. The Third Place Award was declared vacant. Finally, the Board decided to recognize four Honorable Mentions for the following studies: “Are prudent monetary and fiscal policy drivers of FDI inflows?” by Helder Ferreira de Mendonça and Bruno Pires Tiberto“A Markov-Switching DSGE Model for Measuring the Output Gap in Brazil” by Eleonora de OliveiraAndreza Aparecida Palma and Marcelo Savino“Estimating Potential Output in Times of COVID-19” by Luigi Durand and Jorge Alberto Fornero; and “Nonlinear Impact of the Conventional Monetary Policy: A Cross-Country Evidence” by Jorge Antonio Pozo Sánchez and Youel Rojas Zea.

 

Mexican immigrants in the United States sent 18.5 percent of their annual labor income to their relatives in Mexico at the end of the third quarter of 2023

Jesús A. Cervantes González & Juan Antonio Ortega, Nota de Remesas 12/2023

At the end of the third quarter of 2023, the percentage of the annual wage bill earned in the United States by Mexican immigrant workers that was sent to Mexico as remittances was 18.5 percent. Mexico's annual income from remittances was US$62.603 billion, and of this figure, US$59.969 billion came from the United States, or 95.8 percent of the total. This amount, in relation to the wage bill of Mexican immigrant workers of 324,838 million dollars, represented 18.5 percent.

 

U.S. wealth of the Mexican immigrant population: home ownership

Jesús A. Cervantes González, Nota de Remesas 11/2023

The Note focuses on a virtually unknown aspect of the economics of emigration and remittances, which is to identify whether Mexican emigrant’s own assets abroad and, in particular, whether they own the home they inhabit. It is documented that in the case of Mexican emigration to the United States, the employment and income opportunities that these migrants have achieved as a whole have allowed them not only to support their relatives in Mexico with remittances, but also to accumulate wealth through the acquisition of real estate.

It also highlights that in 2022, the total value of homes owned by Mexican immigrant households reached 607,029 million dollars, a figure equivalent to 41.4 percentage points of Mexico's GDP.

 

CEMLA hosts the XVIII Meeting of Heads of Monetary Policy


The XVIII Meeting of Heads of Monetary Policy was held in-person on October 2 and 3, 2023, in Mexico City, Mexico. The Meeting gathered senior monetary policy officials and researchers from CEMLA member central banks. The event featured presentations on the experiences of the central banks of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru in conducting monetary policy. The Meeting began with a presentation by Manuel Ramos-Francia, Director General of CEMLA, on “Recent Developments in Inflation and Monetary Policy in LA.” Then, Óscar Arce, Director General Economics at the European Central Bank, gave a talk on “Euro Area Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy.” Finally, a Policy Roundtable discussion took place among the above-mentioned central banks and the Central Bank of Uruguay.

 

Weakness of Mexican migration flow to the U.S.

Jesús A. Cervantes González & Denisse Jiménez Torres, Nota de Remesas 10/2023

During the last decade, the size of the Mexican immigrant population in the United States decreased significantly. Such evolution reflected a weak migratory flow that was overcome by the voluntary and compulsive return of migrants and mortality in that population group. In fact, from 2018 to 2022, it decreased the number of Mexican immigrants by almost half a million people. This contrasts with the general perception that there is a significant number of Mexicans migrating to the United States. The note addresses different aspects of this issue and analyzes how to reconcile the decline in the Mexican immigrant population in the United States with the significant increase in the income of Mexico from remittances.

 

Paper acceptance for publication from a CEMLA Researcher


A CEMLA Researcher's paper, "Restricted Complementarity and Paths to Stability in Matching with Couples," has been accepted for publication in Mathematical Social Sciences. This journal emphasizes the unity of mathematical modelling in economics, psychology, political sciences, sociology and other social sciences.

 

Are remittances included in the measurement of poverty in Mexican states?

Jesús A. Cervantes González & Juan Antonio Ortega, Nota de Remesas 9/2023

Remittances received by Mexico from abroad raise the standard of living of recipient households and alleviate poverty. The contribution of this important income, whose main purpose is to cover the living expenses of Mexican households, is practically ignored in the measurement of poverty. This problem is even more serious at the state level, particularly in those states that are the main recipients of remittances and stand out for their low per capita product. In 2022, remittances equivalent to 12.4 percentage points of state GDP were not considered in the case of Michoacán; 14.4 percentage points of GDP in Guerrero; and 10.8 percentage points of GDP in the cases of Zacatecas and Oaxaca.

 

CEMLA hosts the 2023 Latin American Journal of Central Banking Conference


The 2023 Latin American Journal of Central Banking Conference took place on July 13 and 14, 2023 at the CEMLA's headquarters in Mexico City. The event brought together scholars, policymakers, and professionals to discuss essential topics in central banking. Keynote Lectures were given by Charles Bean (LSE), who presented “To QE or not to QE: What Have We Learnt from Two Decades of Unconventional Monetary Policies?” and Vincent Reinhart (Mellon), who gave a talk titled “The Tragedy of Central Banking.” The program featured 27 research papers in 9 sessions, divided into 3 parallel sessions. The sessions covered the following subjects: inflation, inflation expectations, monetary policy, monetary policy and heterogeneity, financial markets, macroeconomic theory, payments and technology, empirical macrofinance, and systemic risk.

 

Remittances in Mexico and household income-expenditure surveys

Jesús A. Cervantes González & Denisse Jiménez Torres, Nota de Remesas 8/2023

Remittances received by Mexico from abroad increase the standard of living of recipient households and reduce poverty. In fact, remittances measured in relation to GDP reach very high percentages in states with lower per capita incomes. The contribution of this important income, whose main purpose is to cover the living expenses of Mexican households, is not adequately captured by the ENIGH, so its contribution is practically ignored in the measurement of inequalities in the country and poverty. If the ENIGH database is not adequately adjusted to correct for the underestimation of income, including remittances, its use for the measurement of inequality and poverty yields incorrect results and particularly a strong overestimation of poverty in the country.

 

 

 

 

Upcoming activities

Fortalecimiento de Capacidades en Taxonomías de Finanzas Sostenibles

 

Seminario CEMLA/FSI sobre Riesgos Climáticos y el Sector Financiero: Divulgación y Evaluación de Riesgos

 

MNB-CEMLA-OMFIF Conferencia de Estabilidad Financiera

 

Calendario 2023

 

 

Summary of Recent Activities

IV Conferencia de Bancos Centrales sobre Riesgos Ambientales

 

La Banca Central y los Riesgos Financieros Relacionados con el Clima

 

2da. Conferencia de Estabilidad Financiera CEMLA/Dallas Fed

 

Curso CEMLA: Matemáticas Financieras

 

IV Reunión de Responsables de Infraestructuras de Mercados Financieros

 

V Curso de Estabilidad Financiera

 

Meeting of Experts on Document and Archive Management in Central Banks

 

Reunión de Expertos sobre Buen Gobierno y Transparencia

 

XVI Reunión de Auditores Internos de Bancos Centrales

 

II Conferencia Regional de Pagos e Infraestructuras del Mercado Financiero

 

Curso CEMLA: Econometría Financiera

 

Conferencia del Latin American Journal of Central Banking (LAJCB) 2023

 

XIII Reunión de Responsables de Estabilidad Financiera

 

 

Activities
Calendar for 2024Training and formation activities on economic and central banking topics

PublicationsSelection of publications that analyze the main financial and monetary topics of the central bank of the region.

CEMLA
Central Bank AwardAnnual award for the preparation of studies that are of interest to the central bank.

CEMLA MEMBER
Central BanksThe external structure includes 50 members, 29 of which are associated.

Publications

Central Bank Forums