Insights from the Global Central Banking Programme

Global Central Banking and Financial Regulation qualifications participant Ruth Popplewell shares her favourite module on the programme: Monetary Policy and Monetary Analysis.

The Global Central Banking and Financial Regulation programme is very relevant in today’s global environment. The Monetary Policy and Monetary Analysis module was particularly interesting, and I highly recommend it to students, especially given the recent monetary policy actions taken by major central banks worldwide to reduce inflation. The module provides an in-depth insight into the role of monetary policy and how it is implemented. Students are introduced to a range of considerations related to monetary policy such as forecasting, key macroeconomic variables that can affect monetary policy and the importance of monitoring trends and cycles. My favourite part of the module pertained to the 3-Equation model and its application to several shocks such as inflation, financial crises and oil shocks. Overall, the scenarios presented provided a comprehensive overview of how a central bank may respond to a shock and the effects of such action on the economy.

While the module’s lessons sufficiently explained the concepts, I found the wbsLive sessions and the accompanying notes very effective in solidifying my understanding of the theory. The wbsLive tutor was engaging, easy to understand and used interesting real-world examples to explain some of the theory. It also provided students with a thorough step-by-step guide on the 3-Equation scenarios presented in the lessons. This was very helpful in closing some of the gaps I had in understanding its application.

For the assessment, students were required to answer two questions from a series of questions within a 48-hour period. The assessment approach is not unique to the Monetary Policy and Monetary Analysis module and should not be too onerous for students who completed the required course material and attended the wbsLive sessions.

I work in a regulatory and supervisory role and I am not directly involved in advising on or implementing monetary policy per se. Nevertheless, exposure to this module has certainly enabled me to better understand and anticipate economic trends and the consequences of monetary policy decisions and their impact on economic drivers. This in turn allows me to more easily identify early risk indicators affecting the local industry and better analyse their circumstances.