Singapore central bank head takes on political issues

Bloomberg

In the last few weeks, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore has gained attention for his personal views on some politically charged topics, echoing a similar evolution among his central banking peers as they address the world beyond money supply.
In a series of recent lectures as a visiting scholar at a local university’s think tank, Ravi Menon has tackled several top issues facing policy makers in the city-state and globally: a possible wealth tax and minimum wage to address inequality; the economic case for foreign labour and immigration; and the need for a higher carbon tax to meet climate-change commitments.
In past crises it might have been unusual to hear a central bank chief weigh in on such hotbed issues. During the pandemic era, however, central bankers globally have become more vocal on social issues, even embedding climate-change mitigation into their missions and expanding their traditional toolkits amid record-low interest rates.
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, for instance, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen often cited economic mobility as a critical issue, but lamented there was little central bankers could do.
Her successor, Jerome Powell, has sharpened the Fed’s focus on the topic, and has spoken extensively on issues like minority unemployment with an eye toward how the Fed can help advance the government’s goals.
In Menon’s case, he’s careful to emphasize that his four lectures at the Institute of Policy Studies at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy — the last of which was Wednesday — reflect his personal views, not that of the MAS or the Singapore government.
“There are many central bankers who have been quite forthcoming and vocal on
the international stage, which add to the intellectual debate and policymaking,” said Selena Ling, chief economist at
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp in Singapore, citing Agustin Carstens and Mark Carney, the former heads of central banks in Mexico and England respectively.
“There should be no constraint on offering informed ideas or debating and challenging the status quo if it adds to the richness of the
debate and robustness of
policymaking.”