60th Annual Meeting of the Ifo Institute
ifo Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, München, 2009
ifo Schnelldienst, 2009, 62, Nr. 12, 03-05
On 23 June 2009 the sixtieth annual meeting of the Ifo Institute took place in the Grosse Aula of the University of Munich. After words of welcome by the University's Vice President, Reinhard Putz, Hans-Werner Sinn presented the latest ifo economic forecast. He saw great risks for further setbacks in the world economy and renewed his criticism of the strong export orientation of the German economy, which as a result is particularly hard-hit by the sharp downturn in world trade. According to Sinn, the danger of deflation is stronger than that of inflation. To combat the financial crisis the state should take on temporary shares in the banks. Guest speaker was Axel Weber, president of the German Bundesbank who spoke on the reactions and the lessons from the global financial crisis. The event concluded with a panel discussion with Axel Weber, Hans-Werner Sinn, Georg Fahrenschon, Bavarian State Minister of Finance, and Theodor Weimer, executive board spokesman of HypoVereinsbank. The statements of Georg Fahrenschon, Axel Weber and Theodor Weimer and the Ifo Economic Forecast are printed in this issue. The presentation by Hans-Werner Sinn and panel discussion are available as a video on the Ifo website.