Gillian Fawcett, Head of Governments, CIPFA
CIPFA held a key event for finance professionals working in public services around the world in the heart of Europe in November. The seminar was supported and hosted by the European Court of Auditors.
Klaus-Heiner Lehne, President of the ECA delivered the opening speech and snapping at his heals were David Walker, Senior Strategic Advisor, PwC and former US Comptroller General and Philippe Peuch-Lestrade, Deputy CEO of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).
Nenad Pacek, President of Global Success Advisors wowed participants with his predictions about the global economy and its impact on public services in the future. He argued that two pervasive “mega volatilities” are set to throw emerging market government finances into cyclical disarray for years to come. Pacek also covered issues facing the developed world: namely, low growth in the eurozone, which only began its own quantitative easing programme in March 2015; and the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency in the US.
In the European economy, he said the European Central Bank’s programme of printing money to buy €80bn worth of bonds per month is having a positive impact. As a result, after many years of “misguided austerity”, governments are able to breathe easier.
Across the Atlantic, he predicted that Trump’s policies, which include tax cuts and infrastructure spending, could deliver a short-term growth injection for the US. But later on he said, “It all gets very murky and fuzzy because after an initial boost of growth, it means a significant increase in government deficits, government debt and so on. That will have some implications for some time to come.”
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