Marco

Senior economist

Monetary policy advice to Klaas Knot

“The Netherlands is only one of 20 euro countries, but DNB President Klaas Knot's voice carries considerable weight on the European Central Bank's Governing Council. This is partly due to the preparatory work of my department, Business Cycle & Macro Analysis, which includes writing the biannual Spring and Autumn Projections detailing the economic outlook for the Netherlands. As part of this work, we obtain price statistics and inflation figures from Statistics Netherlands and we consult with European Central Bank specialists. We also analyse the European business cycle for the monetary policy advice we prepare. At the same time, my colleagues and I keep a close eye on the US economy and other indicators, because international developments also have an effect on inflation here.

Getting behind the controls

There is no other agency or institution in the Netherlands that has such a say on curbing inflation. I find it very interesting to be personally involved in setting the strategy. Getting behind the controls of the European Central Bank's key policy rate, for instance, is quite a technical exercise, mostly done based on a model involving a lot of economic theory and statistics. Our preparatory work helps Klaas Knot determine his positions on Governing Council issues. We make sure that we provide him with robust and incisive insights and arguments to maximise his impact. And in my opinion that’s working out very well.

We make sure that we provide him with robust and incisive insights and arguments to maximise his impact. And in my opinion that’s working out very well.

Confidence in a strong Dutch economy

In addition to our part in setting monetary policy, we answer questions about the economy from a range of stakeholders, including government ministries and employer and employee organisations that want to understand the short- and longer-term inflation trends. Inflation is painful because everything gets more expensive and people have less money to spend. So we also make time for questions from the general public and the media, and for presentations at schools and universities. Our work is a really great mix of being deeply involved in monetary policy at the European level on the one hand, and explaining what we do in very practical and comprehensible language on the other. By making a complex topic like inflation understandable, we are working to build not only a strong economy, but also confidence in the economy."