samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
It must do so, at a time when Albania’s economic growth is subdued and the demand is weak. This year we expect GDP growth of around 1.9%. The figure could be a little higher next year, but is still more reliant on foreign demand, which, on its own, is quite uncertain. Our business sector must find new ways and new markets to sustain its activity and grow. Our experience has shown that businesses or industries which had more diversified product markets, which took care of their cost structures and their balance sheets, have fared better through the downturn and have brighter prospects on the expected upturn. It serves to show that, as in other areas of life, a long term approach to business yields better results. Financing is important at growth times, but is also needed at difficult economic times to facilitate business restructuring and ensure time consistency of change implementation. Both in Greece and Albania, and indeed in Europe, the banking sector is the dominant source of finance. This fact highlights the importance of a sound banking system for our economies and has raised deep concerns in Europe about the chances of a credit-less recovery, given the actual very weak credit growth.

All this must be attained in a setting in which new developments and circumstances will be emerging – and they are in fact appearing already – to make our analytical and supervisory tasks more demanding. In any event, enjoying society’s trust and recognition will involve being able to respond successfully to this challenge. To be able to accomplish our mission and reach both objectives, the Banco de España is going to have to adapt. But such adaptation must also stand on sound pillars. The first of these pillars is our independence. Independence is a necessary condition for achieving the aforementioned objectives and it is independence alone that can offer us the best guarantees of success. Secondly, the exercise of independence should be underpinned by analysis and decisions based on the utmost intellectual rigour. This is also the best base from which to address the necessary accountability and transparency to society. Thirdly, we can only properly perform our dual role of members of the Eurosystem and public servants by the pursuit of excellence in our work and by promoting the excellence of our staff. Such excellence has been and is, no doubt, one of the hallmarks of this institution. It is my firm commitment to maintain and enhance the Bank’s human capital. To conclude, I shall adhere to the tradition launched by Governor Linde when he took office and end, as he did, with a quote.
Shanghai could tap on Singapore’s role as a regional infrastructure-financing hub in ASEAN to jointly access infrastructure opportunities in the region. Additionally, both financial centres can work together to develop innovative capital market solutions for infrastructure projects in China, ASEAN and in third countries. Key financial institutions in China are already working closely with Singapore on this front. 4/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  They have significantly scaled up their BRI-related activities in Singapore over the past two years. China and Singapore financial institutions are tapping on each other’s strengths to help Chinese firms “go out”. For example: In June 2015, Bank of China (BOC) issued four currency “Silk Road” bonds in Singapore, which included a SGD 500 million tranche and a RMB 5 billion tranche. In August 2016, China Construction Bank (CCB) listed its first RMB 1 billion BRI infrastructure bond on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). In September 2016, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) signed an agreement with the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to support Chinese companies looking to list equities or bonds on SGX. Both parties will also explore collaboration in derivatives trading, bond trading and market making of RMB-denominated contracts listed on SGX. Since November 2015, three of China’s top four banks (ICBC, CCB and BOC) have signed MOUs with International Enterprise Singapore to deepen BRI partnerships in ASEAN. These MOUs brought in more than SGD 90 billion worth of financing for BRIrelated projects and to support Chinese and Singapore firms investing into BRI countries.

Jacqueline Loh: Shanghai and Singapore - synergies amidst a dynamic Asian financial landscape Keynote address by Ms Jacqueline Loh, Deputy Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Second Shanghai-Singapore Financial Forum, Shanghai, 30 November 2016. * * * Ladies and Gentlemen Introduction 1 Good afternoon, it is my pleasure to join you at the 2nd Shanghai-Singapore Financial Forum (SSFF). 2 In November last year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Shanghai Municipal Financial Services Office (Shanghai FSO) launched the inaugural SSFF. That was a significant and important milestone. As the Chinese saying goes, 二人同心，其利断金. The SSFF is more than just a forum. It is a reflection and commemoration of the longstanding relationship and cooperation between Shanghai and Singapore. Following last year’s success, both sides are keen to build on the good momentum achieved and bring our relationship to a higher plane. 3 The aspirations of both the MAS and Shanghai FSO are reflected in the theme for this year: “Shanghai and Singapore – A Partnership for a New Asian Financial Landscape” . Our hope is that both cities can work together to forge a stronger, more future-ready partnership ahead. This is important for both Shanghai and Singapore, which are international financial centres in the midst of a rapidly evolving Asian financial landscape. 4 Let me outline briefly what we have achieved together so far and highlight the synergies that we see ahead for both Shanghai and Singapore. I.
If we compare with the high-inflation period – the 20 years from the mid-1970s, we can, however, see that we have had a faster increase in productivity in the past five years. We should not therefore rule out the possibility that we are on threshold of a faster growth in productivity when IT investments spread on a broad basis to the “old economy” in the same way as has happened in the United States. The strong increase in productivity in recent years has taken place without inflation accelerating. This has surprised many people – for even though the previously high unemployment, indicated that there were a lot of unused resources in the economy, there were many who doubted whether it would be possible for so many to return to the labour market so quickly. Month after month, we have seen increases in employment of 80-90 000 persons on an annual basis, 70 per cent of which have taken place by an increased supply of labour. Flexibility in the labour market has thus exceeded expectations. Open unemployment is now down to around 4 per cent, which, while it is higher than that considered normal in the 1980s, is lower than what many people in the early 1990s feared would be normal. Stable inflation expectations The stabilisation of inflation expectations at a low level shows that the Riksbank’s inflation target has attained high credibility. A number of factors have contributed to confirming confidence in the price stability objective.

From this point of view, as you know Banque de France has paid particular attention to the continuation of the BACH database, since we were chosen to run it, two years ago, for the common interest of the ECCBSO members and beyond. We are committed to keeping it functioning properly, and encourage all initiatives to exploit all those interesting series of aggregated ratios. Among the numerous researches that have been made with these data, I would like to refer to the paper published by two economists from the ECB, Andra Buca and Philip Vermeulen, last February, concerning “corporate investment and bankdependant borrowers during the recent financial crisis”. Here also at the Banque de France, we publish several articles in our Bulletin extracting valuable piece of information in the BACH data base. Concerning your so-called WG 3, which focuses on IASB methodology and more generally monitoring of listed groups, Banque de France is interested in the new cooperation started last year with Eurostat. It will help to identify more precisely European groups’ structure and especially cross-border groups. But I understand that this TF is involved in many other topics, of which works on a dedicated data base (ERICA) which can deliver interesting results. There is a lot of work behind this and we can only hope to see those valuable contributions to be well promoted.
It is perhaps inevitable that as time passes and memories fade, there is less political focus on these issues and less will among jurisdictions to ensure governance keeps pace with the risks. Fatigue sets in. For example:   Before the crisis Basel II, which was not particularly ambitious, took 10 years to agree.   By contrast, post-crisis the key elements of Basel III, which was a significant step-change, took just 2 years.   But as the crisis receded and fatigue developed, it took a further 5 years to finalise Basel 3.1, which implemented less sweeping changes. The lesson fades that in an integrated global economy we are all ultimately in the same boat or in the words of Benjamin Franklin that “if we do not hang together we will most assuredly hang separately”. This had led to fragmentation in the way we implement the reforms we have agreed. Moreover, the circle of players has grown. The governance reform efforts of the last 50 years have been predominantly led by the advanced economies whose financial institutions dominated the global economy. That is changing with the increasing importance in the global economy of emerging markets – indeed much of the financial innovation we see today is happening in the emerging market and developing world rather than in the advanced economies. We are now in short having to work harder to generate the consensus to keep the governance necessary for financial globalisation moving forward in line with the risk. And we can see major challenges emerging.

To sum up, the extent to which the central bank uses collateralised lending to intermediate between banks has proved helpful in restoring confidence and “real money” financial flows in the underlying asset markets – the markets in which the collateral is priced. This has repaired links in the early stages of the transmission channel, the viability of which depends on those collateral prices. These links would have been brutally and perhaps irrevocably severed, if private arbitrage had been the only force of market motion, as in normal times. But increased intermediation has an impact on the liquidity risk exposure of banks, on their ability to carry out maturity transformation, as well as on the liquidity of specific money market segments. Whether the impact is positive or negative is hard to say. But moral hazard – which is the pitfall of any such type of thinking – makes conditions (and behaviours)  2  The significant increase in activity in the primary market for covered bonds – which the ECB started purchasing in July 2009 in the context of the covered bond purchase programme – is an example of how these measures have stabilised financial markets. 4  BIS Review 83/2010  change in response to central bank actions. As was the case at the start of the rational expectations revolution in macroeconomics, a prudent central bank needs to internalise the private sector’s response to its own actions. 4.
The Bank of Japan is implementing an intensive quantitative easing program and, similarly to the ECB, they include both public and private issues, but with a very important weight of public debt, which amounts now to more than 80 % of Bank of Japan’s total assets. The size of the Bank of Japan balance sheet represents now more than 75 % of the Japanese GDP. The provision of ample liquidity by Central Banks has contributed to restore financial market functioning in situations of severe stress and so, to support the economy. In the euro area, the effects of ECB actions are estimated to have contributed to reduce financial stress and fragmentation, easing financing conditions and helping to restore the credit channel. According to available estimates, all these developments have added significantly to inflation and GDP growth over the last two years. And, although quantitative estimates are surrounded by some uncertainty, it is clear by now that this battery of monetary policy actions have reduced the likelihood of very adverse scenarios. In due course, a need to restore more normal monetary conditions will arise, although its precise timing is impossible to predict and will depend on the cyclical situation of each economy or monetary area. This normalization process may create a scenario of monetary policy divergences, in which there maybe unexpected exchange rate movements and communication is very relevant.

The combination of macro challenges and regulatory reforms: The current and forthcoming financial landscape for banks I will comment now on the financial landscape for banks and the regulatory reforms. The prevailing low-interest rate environment may pressure banks’ interest rate margins downwards when the negative impact on the interest rate differential exceeds the positive effect of low interest rates on banks’ activity. This potential unintended consequence of monetary policy lies in parallel with other factors that are putting pressure on banks’ profitability, in particular, regulatory reforms aimed at addressing vulnerabilities in the global banking system as well as deficiencies in the current framework. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Some of these reforms have already been implemented and banks have improved their resilience. Solvency ratios have been reinforced with a new calibration of the requirements and the definition of the eligible capital instruments for the numerator of these ratios. However, different problems in the denominator related to the measurement of risk still persist and should also be addressed. In this regard, I would say that the major general outstanding issue to finalize the Basel postcrisis reforms is how to mitigate the unwarranted variability in the risk weighted assets that are calculated by banks when using internal models. This revision should be feasible by striking a right balance between sensitivity, simplicity and comparability. There is a special focus also on avoiding significant increases for overall capital requirements.
The Committee had to set out how it thought about the world, first of all for itself, and then for the outside world. You can still see evidence of all this activity on the Bank’s website – in speeches describing how the MPC saw the world, and in books which set out the MPC’s models of the economy. But the world does not stand still. Over the last decade, the Committee, and the Bank staff who support it, have had to confront some enormous changes in the economic environment. The Committee’s thinking has had to evolve to meet this challenge. Without going into detail – that would require another speech – let me give you a flavour of some of the questions with which we have been grappling during my own time on the Committee alone. First, we have had to understand the implications of some very big movements in asset prices, both domestically and globally. House prices have risen steadily, tripling since 1997, to reach record levels relative to household incomes and rents. Share prices soared in the run up to the millennium, then slumped, but have subsequently recovered. There has been a long running debate among central bankers about how they should respond to asset price booms – and possible busts – with some arguing that there is a case for taking pre-emptive action, over and above what might be warranted to meet the inflation target over the normal two to three year horizon.

Gent Sejko: Overview of Albania’s latest monetary and economic developments and outlook Speech by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, on the Monetary Policy Decision of the Bank of Albania’s Supervisory Council, Tirana, 4 March 2015. *  *  *  Today, on the 4 of March 2015, the Supervisory Council of the Bank of Albania reviewed and approved the Interim Monetary Policy Report. After scrutinising the current and expected performance of inflation and other economic indicators, the Supervisory Council of the Bank of Albania decided to keep the key interest rate unchanged at 2.0%. *** The domestic and external economic environment has generated low inflationary pressures. According to INSTAT data, annual inflation was 1.3% in January, up from the rate registered in December. Inflation fluctuations in the last two months have been determined mainly by the volatility in food prices. The fall in food inflation in December and its rise in January were driven by developments in international markets and the performance of domestic production. In parallel, the decline in oil prices has generated downward pressure on inflation. Prices of other consumer goods’ categories did not display any significant change. The rise in inflation in January was in line with our projections; however, the rate of inflation remains below Bank of Albania’s target. The Bank of Albania evaluates that inflationary pressures will increase gradually and inflation will return to target within the medium term.
The way to do it is to set up a state-administered system to which all the banks pay a fee in relation to their risks, much like an ordinary insurance policy. Sure, the state still stands the risk in the event of a large failure. But in this system, it is duly compensated for the risk. And the financing is robust. If implemented widely, this solution will also make for a more level playing field between banks from different countries competing partly on the same markets. I therefore hope that the proposal will get more international attention than it has so far. There must be a strong negotiating position for the government even when financial stability is threatened The above set up is a good set up to be able to handle the average bank failure. But, again, in some situations a different regime may be needed. In particular, this may be the case when it comes to larger and more complex banks in a situation of markets turmoil, when there is a systemic threat to the financial system. In this situation, it may not be possible to immediately revoke the licence for a bank which is in serious violation of the supervisory regulations. The focus will need to be on maintaining the key operations in the financial system. To secure this, the bank may need to stay open, at least for a while.

These concepts are echoed in the various principles that follow, which highlight more specific recommendations based upon the roles market participants take on and the types of transactions in which they engage. Labels aside, the fundamental recommendations regarding roles recognize the importance of clear communication of roles, the importance of fairness and the strong expectation that discretion not be used in a manner designed to disadvantage a client. Clarity of terminology was again important during the development of Principle 11 on prehedging. The Code is very specific in how it describes pre-hedging. It is defined as “the management of the risk associated with one or more anticipated client orders, designed to benefit the client in connection with such orders and any resulting transactions.” The principle then lays out circumstances in which such pre-hedging may or may not be appropriate. 2/6  BIS central bankers' speeches  The principles on information sharing cover topics where there had seemed to be a lack of clarity within the market. The principles emphasize the importance of appropriately identifying and managing confidential information. They describe what may constitute confidential information and when such information should or should not be shared and with whom. They also provide guidance as to how market participants might communicate market color appropriately and, critically, without compromising confidential information. It is important to recognize that the FX market is not entirely about trading and execution—risk management, compliance, and confirmation and settlement are central to FX transactions, and they comprise the final two sections of the Code.
In addition, the Bank of Zambia has incorporated financial inclusion as part of its current strategic plan in which it has undertaken to achieve financial inclusion to 50% of the population of the land by 2015 from the current level of 37.3%. The rationale for this objective is that it responds to the need to bring the poor into the financial system and thereby avail them of the opportunities for financial access and growth. It is expected therefore that this branch we are opening today will play its part in enhancing savings mobilization and effectively channeling the savings to support financing of economic activities. Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bank of Zambia has for sometime now, been discussing with commercial banks and financial institutions such as NATSAVE on the need to seek ways and means of introducing branches and agencies in districts which do not have any bank branches or agencies such as Mpongwe, Masaiti, Lufwanyama to name but a few. I am pleased to inform you that, in November 2012, the Bank of Zambia sent a mission to Mpongwe and Masaiti to gather information which could assist in developing a business case for financial institutions to establish branches and support economic activities in these two districts. The report we obtained from the mission provided overwhelming evidence of a viable business case for not only one bank branch but several, to open up in these two districts, especially in Mpongwe district.

For instance, the mission observed that in Mpongwe, in the 2011 farming season, the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) paid out a total of K52 billion (Kr 52 million) to small-scale maize farmers while an additional K7 billion (Kr 7 million) was paid to commercial farmers. Coupled with this, total sales from maize alone exceeded about K80 billion (K80 million) if total sales to agents other than the FRA was included. It was further observed that the district produces more maize than the other nine districts on the Copperbelt put together. In addition, it was noted that the payments made to the farmers were growing steadily as evidenced by the increase from K19 billion (Kr19 million) in 2010 to K58 billion (Kr 58 million) in 2011 while members of the Farmers Union had accessed about K2.4 billion (Kr2.4 million) in loans from banks outside the district for the 2010/2011 farming season alone. Furthermore, the Mission reported that 2,700 residents of Mpongwe, comprising Government/Civil Service employees and registered farmers use the financial services located either in Kitwe, Ndola or Luanshya. It must be noted that this number did not include other persons in the productive sector such as private businesses. Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, the report further observed that a total monthly wage bill of about K2.8 billion (Kr2.8 million) was paid out to the residents of Mpongwe in 2011. These funds did not include grants and other sources of funding utilized by various Government organs and private individual and businesses.