NMMU Business School to Host World Bank

Port Elizabeth, 6 March 2013 - NMMU Business School and the NMMU Faculty of Business Economic Sciences will host the World Bank for a public presentation on South African Export Competitiveness on 26 March 2014.  This public engagement aims to stimulate knowledge exchange and dialogue between export-oriented private sector firms of Nelson Mandela Bay and the World Bank.

The World Bank’s lead economist Catriona Purfield will provide substantive insights on the research findings from  a new World Bank research report, “South Africa Economic Update:  Focus on Export Competitiveness,” which was published last month.  

Purfield leads the bank's economic policy dialogue in South Africa and supervises the World Bank's program of economic policy in the Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland countries.

Prior to joining the World Bank in July 2013, Purfield worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) where she served as an advisor in the European Department. She led the IMF’s Article IV surveillance missions over the course of the Baltic crisis to Lithuania, and then subsequently to Bulgaria. In this context, she provided extensive advice to governments on crisis management and macroeconomic policy issues related to growth, stability, fiscal and financial sector policies as well as trade and labour markets. 

At the IMF, she has also worked as a senior personnel manager and an economist in the Asia Pacific region covering India and Bhutan, and in the Fiscal Affairs Department covering countries in Africa and the Middle East. Her research interests and publications cover the fields of macroeconomics, economic growth, fiscal policy, natural resource management, and unemployment and labour market issues.

Born in Ireland, Purfield received her B.A (Hons) in Economics and Geography from Trinity College Dublin, and her PhD. in Economics from the same university. She is also a graduate of the Kiel Institute of World Economics Graduate Program on International Macroeconomics.

For further information contact Mary-Anne Booysen at (email) Mary-Anne.Booysen2@nmmu.ac.za or (contact number) 041 504 4772.