Hi, I’m Noé, a former participant and finalist. This should show you what the competition is about by recalling my experience, along with some advice I would give anyone participating.
First Round – The Quiz
The first round was a discovery of the ECB and the Eurosystem. There are two types of questions: economic theory and specific knowledge questions. They are designed to prepare you for the later rounds and select the teams for the second round.
Second Round – The Monetary Policy Decision Essay
You act as a member of the ECB’s Governing Council. Your aim is to draft monetary policy to enables the Eurosystem’s objective of price stability, defined as a yearly inflation of 2% over the medium term. To do this you will have to consider the factors that influence the financial and economic situation by considering their persistence, significance, uncertainty and more. Writing the essay was particularly interesting to me; it was an exercise in trying to explain the data found, always coming back to interest rates and inflation to justify my decision. I wrote about the economic situation and inflation forecasts (along with the risks and uncertainties) while another group member focused on the financial aspects including the transmission of monetary policy and non-conventional policy measures.
Third Round – The Presentation
The situation had evolved greatly since we had wrote our essay; new factors (in my case it was profit margins) were uncovered while others dissipated. The presentation was a new challenge in presenting conclusions from data in the most concise way possible to a jury of experts that will ask questions to test the limits of your understanding and knowledge.
General Advice
- Be ready to spend a lot of time on it – try to split up the work
- Be curious in your research, question and understand what you read, but stay relevant
- Eurostat’s website is the source of data and statistics - I recommend using their euro indicators dashboard to get a sense of the situation and datasets to build your graphs
- Read publications on the ECB’s Website – Monetary Policy Decisions and Statements, Consumer Expectation Surveys, Bank Lending Surveys, blog, speeches, etc...
Written by Noé Teyssier, intern at the BCL, finalist of the 2022-2023 Generation €uro Competition
