samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
One source of vulnerability in the face of rising geopolitical tensions is Europe’s high external dependency with respect to some products which are key to the EU economy, but which are imported from a handful of non-EU countries. China accounts for a large share of goods imports into the EU. China is also the main exporter to the EU of several electronic products (such as computers and optical devices), for which domestic production capacity is also relatively low. This situation is not unique to the EU. As a consequence, China is becoming the “OPEC of industrial inputs”.2 This dependence on Chinese imports already had significant consequences for the European manufacturing sector during the pandemic. There is evidence3 that the Chinese supply chain disruptions that occurred in the early months of the pandemic had a considerable impact on manufacturing output in the euro area, temporarily reducing it by 7%. The EU is also dependent on third countries for semiconductor production. European companies involved in the manufacture of these products concentrate almost exclusively on the upstream stage of the production chain, providing manufacturing equipment and high-purity materials used in chip production. However, European companies account for a negligible share of other critical stages of the production chain, such as chip design or assembly. They are also heavily dependent on foreign suppliers: almost 80% of the suppliers of European semiconductor companies are based outside the EU. 4  1  Io annou, D. and J. J. Pérez (co -leads) (2023).

One is the move towards higher frequency of financial reporting, from annual, half-yearly to quarterly. While this move may have been driven by good intentions of promoting transparency and accountability, inevitably it compresses further the performance measurement period faced by bank management and increases the pressure on the senior managers in delivering short term performance. The second factor is the emergence of activist shareholders in the form of hedge funds and, to a lesser extent, certain pro-active fund managers. The net effect of 2/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  short-termism in banking is that firms would tend to opt for businesses or transactions that would boost short term performance in profits or share price, such as large scale acquisitions or mergers or rapid expansion. Investments that are necessary for the longer term viability or competitiveness of the bank, such as upgrading of IT systems and internal talent development, would tend to be given a lower priority. We have seen many high profile cases of massive expansion of business through indiscriminate acquisition or a sharp rise in proprietary trading by banks, which, as we now know, ended rather badly. Fast forays into areas with insufficient expertise or chasing bulge-bracket status by combining aggressive trading businesses with more traditional banking have left banks exposed and created culture clashes in the race for profit. Again, this short-termism in the modern corporate world is not at all conducive to regaining public trust in, and respect for, bankers. 9.
After extensive discussion and a careful evaluation, the Governing Council concluded that the revised design concept of Coop Himmelb(l)au best meets the functional and technical requirements specified by the ECB, and has features that reflect the ECB’s values and transforms them into architectural language.” [Quotation of the Press Release] On 13 February 2004 an international jury consisting of architects, Eurosystem representatives and a representative of the City of Frankfurt chose three winning designs in accordance with the following criteria, as laid down in the Competition Rules out of the 12 design concepts submitted in the Second Phase of the competition: 1. Overall town-planning, architecture and landscape;  2. Compliance with the main features of the functional and spatial programme, including modularity;  3. Feasible approach to an energy/environmental concept and compliance with the main features of the ECB’s technical requirements;  4. Compliance with the relevant rules, in particular in the field of building law and environmental law. The first prize was awarded to Coop Himmelb(l)au, Vienna; the second prize to ASP Schweger Assoziierte, Berlin; and the third prize to 54f architekten+ingenieure, Darmstadt, in cooperation with T.R. Hamzah & Yeang, Selangor. On 18 March 2004, the ECB’s Governing Council decided to invite all three prize winners to revise their design concepts in accordance with the Jury’s recommendations and the ECB’s requirements. The purpose of this Revision Phase was to remedy the remaining functional and technical deficiencies of the concepts.

Gent Sejko: Region's financial and monetary stability, ten years since the crisis outbreak Speech by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, at the regional summit on "Region's Financial and Monetary Stability, Ten Years since the Crisis Outbreak", Governor's Panel "Monetary policy and the stability of the banking systems in the countries of the region – a decade after the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy", Bečići, Montenegro, 18 June 2018. * * *  Dear Guests, Fellow Colleagues, It is a pleasure to be amongst you today and to be able to share opinions on some of the most pressing challenges we are facing at the moment. I would like to focus my remarks on the topic of exchange rates. In particular, I would like to focus on how the monetary policy reaction should be based in the exchange rate movements. I take my premise from the rapid appreciation episode we experienced recently in Albania, which forced us to launch an FX purchase program as a last line of defence towards ensuring medium term price stability. To cover this topic, first I intend to briefly discuss on various monetary policy regimes. I will then discuss on the implications of exchange rate movements for inflation targeting central banks. To conclude, I will give you a short overview of recent exchange rate developments in Albania and our reaction towards them. 1. The choice and implications of exchange rate regimes  A useful starting point on this topic would be to discuss the different options we have.
But the world is complex and people don’t have endless time to devote to understanding monetary policy. In practice, therefore, guidance can be useful in providing people with information about how the MPC sets policy and, over time, in improving understanding of how monetary policy will adjust to news. Guidance thus helps people to think along with the Committee so that their expectations about the path of policy adapt with ours as economic circumstances change. This can make monetary policy more effective by reducing unwarranted volatility in interest rate expectations and the extent to which the MPC has to move Bank Rate to meet the inflation target. The more those expectations are aligned with the policy path necessary to achieve the inflation target, the higher the probability that policy objective will be achieved. Guidance is not a promise of the future path of policy. And its use will not mean that all observers will agree on the likely path of policy for the simple reason that not everyone will agree on the likely path for the economy. However, with guidance, someone who has a different outlook can better anticipate how the MPC will adjust once the scales fall from the Committee’s eyes. Again it is the combination of the economy and the primacy of the inflation target, not the MPC, that ultimately determines that path of policy. 3  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  3  The MPC’s guidance speaks first and foremost to UK households and businesses.

1 Article 3.3 of the Treaty on the European Union. 2 Article 127.5 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 3 The monetary policy strategy review: some preliminary considerations, Speech by Christine Lagarde, President  of the ECB, at the “ECB and Its Watchers XXI”conference, 30 September 2020 4 www.banque-france.fr/sites/default/files/medias/documents/2020.05.25_sep_en_cl.pdf 5  See Blanchard & Summers (2020), Automatic Stabilizers in a Low-Rate Environment, AEA Papers and Proceedings, vol 110, May. 5/5  BIS central bankers' speeches
We need a new regulatory structure that provides for comprehensive and consistent oversight of all elements of the financial system. This includes effective consolidated oversight of all our largest and interconnected financial institutions and oversight of payment and settlement systems. We must make sure that the people doing the regulation have the power and expertise to ferret out and bring to heel regulatory evasion as it occurs to prevent abuse and excess from building up in the financial system. In the end, the gaps, not the overlaps, have been the main shortcoming of our existing regulatory framework. A second fundamental point is that regulatory reform has to ensure that the financial system will be robust and resilient even when it comes under stress so that it will not fail in its critical role in supporting economic activity. No economy can prosper without a well-functioning financial system – one that efficiently channels savings to the businesses that can make the most productive use of those savings, and to consumers that need credit to buy a home and support a family. The fact that our financial system isn’t functioning well right now is part and parcel of our current economic difficulties. This critical link between the “real” and the “financial” is why we care so much about the systemic risks inherent in banking and finance. One critical element of systemic risk is what is known as the “too big to fail” problem.

This gives the Fed more latitude not to tighten when inflation rises for transient reasons – say, due to a short-lived spike in oil prices – and more scope to ease credit to support the economy during economic downturns. Recognizing these benefits, Congress wisely acted many years ago to exempt monetary policy decisions from the GAO’s wide powers to review Federal Reserve activities. Congress’ decision to bolster the Fed’s monetary policy independence has been followed by similar actions around the world – substantial independence for the central bank in the conduct of monetary policy is now widely regarded as international best practice. Policy independence does not absolve the Federal Reserve from accountability for its monetary policy decisions and the need to clearly explain why they were taken. But it avoids the politicization of monetary policy decision-making. And this is good because politicized central banks generally do not have enviable records with regard to inflation, economic growth or currency stability. Risk premia on financial assets are typically much higher in countries with politicized central banks. Of course, a reversal of Congress’s earlier decision would not amount to legislative control over monetary policy decisions. That’s not the issue. The issue is that a reversal of Congress’ earlier decision could create the appearance that the legislature seeks to influence monetary policy decisions by establishing a mechanism to publicly second guess those decisions. Such a move would blur what has been a careful separation of monetary policy from politics.
This seemed a contradiction in terms to many countries – liberalising and opening up but at the same time developing resilience in the financial centre. But we have achieved both. We have managed the tension between liberalisation and developing resilience. I think we’ve managed it rather well. If you look at what happened during the Asian Financial Crisis and subsequently, the Global Financial Crisis, we have come out as one of the safest financial systems in the world. So that was an important third phase – liberalising and opening the financial centre but also developing further resilience. Our credibility today rests on each of these three major phases in MAS’ development and policies – from the foundational years, to the period when we reoriented monetary policy and then in the last phase, liberalising and developing further resilience of the financial centre. The credibility has added up over the years. I also want to say that MAS has become an organisation of excellence. This has particularly been due, in my opinion, to the organisational development efforts that began especially in the mid-1980s, when Mr JY Pillay came in as the Managing Director, followed in subsequent years by Mr Lee Ek Tieng. There was a great focus on organisational development from the mid-80s. It happened that both Mr Pillay and Mr Lee Ek Tieng were amongst the most senior leaders in the public sector. They led the transformation of the MAS as an organisation of people.

The MAS staff responsible for the Gallery have put a lot of thought into its design and content. But the Gallery will keep evolving, and we will want it to stay relevant to Singaporeans young and old. It is significant too that we are opening the Gallery in 2016, when we commemorate the 45th anniversary of the MAS. If we think about what we have achieved in these 45 years, what’s most precious is credibility. Credibility is the most precious asset that a central bank and a financial regulator can have. The MAS’ credibility was founded in its early years. I want to mention the leaders and staff who were involved in putting in placed these foundations of today’s credibility. Mr Hon Sui Sen in particular, our first Chairman (1971-1980), Mr Michael Wong Pak-Shong, who was the Managing Director, and the staff at that time, including Mr Ng Kok Song, Mrs Ong-Ang Ai Boon, Mrs Elizabeth Sam. Together they built an organisation, bringing together no fewer than nine different offices and functions in Government at the time, melding them together in one organisation. They also set the foundations for an international financial centre. Singapore was not a serious financial centre until then. Mr Hon Sui Sen and his team built the foundation for a financial centre that went beyond Singapore.
Karolina Ekholm: Why Swedish monetary policy needs to be more expansionary Speech by Ms Karolina Ekholm, Deputy Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, at Almega (employer and trade organisation for the Swedish service sector), Stockholm, 15 November 2013. *  *  *  The views expressed in this speech are my own and are not necessarily shared by the other members of the Executive Board of the Riksbank. I would like to thank Björn Andersson who has helped in writing the speech. Accompanying charts can be found at the end of the speech. Interest in central banks and monetary policy has been greater than normal since the financial crisis. Here in Sweden, much of this interest has concerned the disagreement among the Executive Board on the level of the interest rate, where I have been one of those who has consistently voted for a more expansionary monetary policy. I have mostly voted for a repo rate that is 0.25 percentage points lower and a repo-rate path that rises more slowly. One might of course think that the difference between this and the repo rate and repo-rate path decided on is so slight that it would not have any effect on the outcome. However, behind this apparently marginal difference in the view of what the repo rate should be is a fundamental difference in the view of the role of the central bank and the route monetary policy should take in the new economic landscape emerging in the wake of the financial crisis.

José De Gregorio: Recent monetary policy actions and their effects Speech by Mr José De Gregorio, Governor of the Central Bank of Chile, before the Finance Commission of the Honorable Chamber of Representatives, Santiago, 27 July 2009. *  *  *  Thank you, Mr. President of the Honorable Chamber of Representatives, Representative Mr. Julio Dittborn for the invitation of the Chamber’s Finance Commission to speak about the effects of the monetary policy decisions we have adopted over the course of this year. Last March, at a special session of the Economic, Promotion and Development Commission of this Chamber, we presented our view on the pass-through we then observed in market interest rates of our monetary policy decisions. In following months, the Central Bank has taken additional measures that have significantly increased the monetary stimulus. The possibility of revisiting this subject, now before the Honorable Finance Commission is, therefore, very timely and very welcome, because it gives us the chance to present an analysis of the effects of our latest decisions. I wish to remind you that monetary policy, especially under an inflation targeting regime with a floating exchange rate like the one we have in place in Chile since 1999, is an important stabilizer of the business cycle. Thanks to institutional developments and high degrees of solvency and liquidity of our economy, the monetary policy makers have been able to act with unusual vigor.
The banks and the card industry can help by intensifying their efforts to protect customers against unauthorised transactions. One element of this may be to accelerate the phase-out of magnetic strips and replace them with chips or similar technology. The requirement that all card terminals and ATMs should use chips is a good first step as skimming and the use of stolen cards constitute more than half of all the cases of card fraud in Sweden today. 7 It is important that the customers feel that paying with cards that contain chips is simple and convenient. A uniform standard for how cards should be placed in card terminals can save time and reduce the risk of customers leaving cards behind after purchases have been made. The principle should be the same as for cars: Irrespective of the make of car, we know where the accelerator and the brake pedals are placed! Better reporting of the number of frauds and how much they cost the card industry would also be desirable. It is after all the cardholders that ultimately have to foot the bill and it is reasonable to expect that all the relevant information should be available to them. Such an approach would also increase the cardholders’ confidence in the cards. In France there is a forum for representatives of the authorities and the card industry. They work to inform customers, shop owners, car issuers and other authorities about the security levels in the various card systems.

Operations may be contracted on the basis of an exchange rate negotiated with financial institutions or the SML rate itself, calculated based on the average real-dollar rate published daily by the Central Bank of Brazil, and the Argentine reference peso-dollar rate. At the closing of both markets, the SML rate will be announced daily. Financial settlement of operations carried out through the system will take place in three business days (d+2). Banking institutions that have Reserve Accounts at the Brazilian Central Bank may be accredited to operate in the system. Authorization to operate on the exchange market is not a prerequisite. The SML is a highly promising initiative for small and medium businesses that have less access to derivative mechanisms to neutralize foreign exchange risk. At the same time, large companies have also shown interest in the system, primarily those that already have mature operations in the two economies. BIS Review 124/2008  1  There is no doubt whatsoever that the system we have just inaugurated will not only stimulate trade transactions between Brazil and Argentina but also enhance competitiveness in both countries. This initiative is a first and important step forward toward greater integration of our economies and of Mercosul. Congratulations to all of those who have played a role in making this historic moment feasible. Thank you. 2  BIS Review 124/2008
Fritz Zurbrügg: Fiscal and monetary policy – interdependence and possible sources of tension Speech by Mr Fritz Zurbrügg, Member of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the University of Lucerne, Lucerne, 21 November 2012. *  *  *  Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure for me to be giving this presentation at the University of Lucerne this evening. Tonight’s topic is one that has interested me for some time. During my ten years at the International Monetary Fund, I repeatedly dealt with questions of fiscal and monetary policy and the interplay between them – albeit in a general and rather abstract way. Over the past six years at the Federal Finance Administration, my work was focused on fiscal policy, and in particular its implementation. This summer, I transferred to the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), and now have the unique opportunity, and the privilege, to focus on monetary policy. Although it is probably a little early for me to be making definitive speeches on both of these economic policy areas, I would like to share a few initial thoughts with you. Introduction In some countries, the scope for fiscal policy action has recently come up against its limits. Governments today find themselves in the position of being virtually unable to finance their normal range of activities, meaning that there is also no scope left for discretionary economic stimulus measures.

This is essential in enabling it to react to new challenges, and to smooth the economy in the event of a crisis. Thus, budget soundness is not an end in itself, because it fosters employment and prosperity. Fiscal policy thus pursues a similar goal to monetary policy. By creating favourable conditions for lasting and balanced economic growth, they both foster a prosperous society. The economic policy goals of monetary and fiscal policy are closely intertwined – or even overlapping. In both of these economic policy areas, sustainability is key: Fiscal policy can only ensure the lasting achievement of its goals if public finances remain healthy over the long term. Monetary policy, for its part, should focus on the medium to long term, because any economic stimulus motivated by short-term considerations carries the risk of raising inflation expectations. To recap: The goals of fiscal and monetary policy overlap to a large extent, which means that in normal times there should be no tension between the two policies. Nevertheless, there is a strong complementarity between fiscal and monetary policy, as their operations have a reciprocal impact as regards both the financial markets and the real economy. Let’s look at the financial markets first (cf. chart 2). Monetary policy steers a reference interest rate on the money market, which is used as a basis for the valuation and trading of securities such as government bonds on the financial market. If monetary policy is credible and succeeds in ensuring price stability, inflation expectations are low and well anchored.