samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Lives and Livelihoods A Delicate Balance Dr. Mohammad Y. Al-Hashel Speech by Chairman of the Higher Steering Committee for Economic Stimulus and Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait 7 June 2020  Taken aback by a pandemic the world had not seen in seven decades, we are left with no choice but to do our best to protect lives. Hurriedly and feverishly imposed measures, as extreme as total lockdowns, brought about the worst global recession since the Great Depression of the early 20th century. Forecasts suggest a drop of 3-5% in gross domestic product, while growth in Europe is forecast to go down 8-12%. With unemployment hitting unprecedented highs, 1.6 billion workers are negatively impacted by the pandemic. The International Labor Organization expects a loss of around 305 million full-time jobs in the second quarter of 2020, and estimates that one of six young people is now out of the job market as a result of the pandemic. And as companies continue to suffer, more are going out of business and this phenomenon would blow up even further. The Organization expects that the “Lockdown Generation” would face even higher unemployment and lower pay for the next five years. These factors combined lead to uncertainty regarding the true extent and severity of the crisis, causing fear and panic among consumers, investors and the business sector as a whole, intensifying further the economic and social impact of the pandemic.

Diversity is not only about our physiological identity – our gender, ethnicity. It is also about our sociological identity – our background, experience – and our neurological identity – our personalities, how our brains are wired. When I joined the Bank of England 26 years ago, I was physiologically similar to others at the Bank, but quite different along these broader sociological and neurological dimensions. In fact, I was the beneficiary of one of the Bank’s first waves of diversity initiatives. And I am delighted to say that, following a sequence of initiatives over the years, the Bank today is a significantly more diverse place along all these dimensions. So too, I am sure, are all of your organisations. The numbers here speak for themselves with a steadily rising trend, over several decades now, of female and ethnic minority representation in the workplace and, admittedly more limited, evidence of a rising trend at senior executive and board level. That is good 3  progress, spurred on by initiatives such as Helena’s 30% Club , Jayne-Anne’s review of gender diversity 4  5  earlier this year and John Parker’s review of ethnic diversity just last week. But can we rest on our laurels? My answer to that – and I imagine Helena’s, Jayne-Anne’s and John’s too - is a resounding no. Many of our organisations have diversity policies, champions and initiatives. Yet this is still a subject owned by the HR department rather than the Boardroom or Executive Suite in many firms.
It has proved powerful in the past, and it is crucial that it continues to do so. 6  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  6

If expectations of future growth prospects at the same time are interrupted, a need for consolidation can arise in the household and business sector, which will strongly dampen growth. The consequences of altogether too strong growth now could therefore be instability in inflation and production later. If the financial imbalances have become altogether too great, there is a risk that the consequences will not be limited to great variations in growth and inflation but will even lead to lower overall production. The same course of development as in the USA? As we have said, it is incontestable that the Swedish economy has functioned better than before. However, there is a risk that we will overshoot. The exceptionally long upswing in the USA has contributed to strengthening expectations on faster long-term growth in Sweden as well. There are certain developmental features in the Swedish economy that are reminiscent of the American economy which could indicate that. An important basis for the favourable development in the USA is probably the approach to budget consolidation and price stability that has guided economic policy there for a long time. And in those areas we have had a similar development in Sweden although the process started later here. At the same time, the strong penetration of information technology in the American  3  BIS Review 48/2000  economy is considered to be a factor that has contributed to the productivity improvements recorded in the USA.
Figure 4: Basis between index tenors for a three year £ swap  Source: Bloomberg data and Bank calculations  LIBOR transition, if executed effectively, offers the prospect of concentrating the liquidity currently split across these multiple curves into a single SONIA curve, providing a materially deeper, more transparent and less complex single market in which to hedge interest rate risk. Unlike some other currencies involved in LIBOR transition, sterling starts with the distinct advantage of already having a liquid, well-traded SONIA curve at shorter maturities based on OIS swaps, supplemented by three futures contracts which also settle on realised compounded SONIA. Rolling the liquidity currently in term LIBOR curves into this curve would further improve price formation at the short end and, importantly, improve the definition of the curve at longer maturities too.

With regard to the operation of the secondary market of government bonds, the Bank of Thailand is currently working on the promotion of a full-fledged primary dealership system to facilitate the conduct of open market operations. We aim for the primary dealers to eventually provide marketmaking functions for both government and private securities. The operation of primary dealers or counterparties of the central bank will be complemented, should market participants deem it useful, by the presence of inter-dealer brokers, who can assist in ensuring continuous two-way quotation, as well as helping to preserve the anonymity of transactions or positions held by a market participant. In August 1999, we appointed 9 counterparties, which comprised eight banks and one securities firm. Starting 19 January 2000, the Bank of Thailand also began trading outright with the 9 counterparties. This operation serves as a monetary policy instrument as well as the mechanism to promote the development of the secondary bond trading. At this early stage, the outright operations will be conducted primarily in the benchmark issues or those with potential to become benchmark issues. These selected counterparties are expected, ultimately, to become primary dealers and we are currently working on putting the right incentives to ensure that appropriate rights and obligations be accorded to these primary dealers. The third area I would briefly touch on is infrastructure issues. Here, work is ongoing to promote a fully automated system of delivery versus payment (DVP) settlement, information disclosure, and instituting appropriate code of conduct on market participants.
•  Neither macroeconomic nor sector imbalances, of which I have spoke before, must be tolerated for too long. •  The banks' risk management processes and procedures must be dramatically improved. This includes revision of the existing limits on the  BIS Review 18/2009  banks' exposure to certain risks, improvement of the stress-testing procedures and elimination of the weaknesses related to risk management which arise from the investments in structural financial products. We, as National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, have adopted new regulations related to these issues and we continue to work on that with our banks. •  Strengthening of the principles for liquidity risk management, especially in crisis. Internationally, steps have already been undertaken. In April 2008, FFS prepared a Report and defined 67 activities for strengthening the markets and the resilience of the institutions. The Report pays special attention to liquidity, and on September 28, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision announced the new Principles for Sound Liquidity Risk Management and Supervision. The responsibility is located with the banks and supervisors. We, as National Bank, have already passed new regulations for defining the main elements which the liquidity risk management system of each bank must incorporate. The aim is to ensure level of liquidity which the banks will be able to use as source for covering. •  The transparency of the operations of the financial institutions must increase through the type and the scope of the data these institutions will disclose.

Both individually and all together we are absorbers of the shocks coming from the rest of the world, and that rest of the world is 98.75% of the world population (we are only 1.25%); 98.57% of the foreign trade, 98.73% of GDP in 2007. Therefore it is important for us to penetrate as close as possible to the nature of the current financial crisis, to the necessary and true answers to the question how it should be managed, which are primarily sought and ought to be found by the developed countries, what lessons are to be drawn from this crisis, what will be the damage for the region, what is the best way to cushion part of the inevitable impact as successfully as possible. What has actually happened? Starting from August 2007, the world was lapped by an intensive financial disorder, turmoil. Once again the trigger was pulled with a severe downward turn in the USA. First, "Fannie Mac" and "Freddie Mac" were taken into conservatorship. The following weekend "Lehman Brothers" turned out to be incapable of finding a buyer and they went bankrupt. This shocked the market, which expected that it will be saved by the government, as it was the case with  BIS Review 18/2009  1  "Bear Stearns" in the beginning of the year. Then, "AIG" had to be rescued after the rumors about the size of its losses incurred by agreements for commercial debt securities. Hence, the pressures increased enormously for the other dealers in securities.
Throughout the postwar history of the UK economy, policy-makers have had to strike a balance between the impact of the external value of the currency on the competitiveness of exports and its potential effect on inflation through import costs and the pricing climate. In my view, we have allowed the pound to depreciate more than is necessary or desirable to support the growth of manufacturing and exports. For example, allowing sterling to rise by about 10% from its current level against the euro £ = € would still leave it at a relatively competitive level by historical standards £ = € The very significant fall in sterling from mid-2007 to early 2009 probably helped to support manufacturing industry and exports and hence stabilise the economy in the depths of the recession. But now the world economy is recovering, exports and manufacturing activity are being strongly boosted by the growth of world trade. Meanwhile, worries about deflation have been replaced by the concern that the UK economy now faces a sustained period of relatively high inflation which is endangering our track record of price stability. In these circumstances, our approach to the value of sterling needs to strike a different balance from the view we took in the depths of recession.

William C Dudley: A preliminary assessment of the TALF Remarks by Mr William C Dudley, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and Pension Real Estate Association's Public-Private Investment Program Summit, New York, 4 June 2009. *  *  *  I thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today about what we at the Federal Reserve have been doing to improve market function and credit market access. Since August of 2007, the Fed has introduced a wide range of special facilities designed to improve market functioning, increase the availability of credit and bring down borrowing costs for households and businesses. Today, I am going to focus my comments on the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), which in my view is one of our most innovative programs. This facility is a complement to the Public-Private Investment Program efforts being undertaken by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Treasury, which are the primary focus of today’s conference. In what follows, I would remind you that my comments reflect my own views and opinions and not necessarily those of the Federal Open Market Committee or the Federal Reserve System. I will discuss how the securitization markets broke down last fall creating the need for TALF, how the TALF works and what it already has accomplished, where we see it evolving going forward, and finally, some preliminary thoughts on the future of securitization markets.
The government has also identified the need to focus on developing regional infrastructure facilities in order to stimulate economic activities in the regions as well as to quickly distribute  BIS Review 88/2007  5  the gains of higher economic growth to the people who are living in remote areas. The ongoing “Maga Neguma”, “Gama Neguma” and “Neganahira Navodaya” programmes are particularly aimed at fulfilling this need. In the meantime, the Central Bank, in collaboration with the Finance Commission has initiated a new approach to examine new ways of maximizing the Provincial Councils’ contribution in the regional development process. We have observed that even after the existence of Provincial Councils for about two decades, the inequalities among the provinces still prevail and in fact have widened over the years. Hence, it is clear that we have to introduce a new and innovative strategy to develop our provinces. In line with this objective, as the first step of this new initiative, the Central Bank and Finance Commission, along with several other stakeholders, are in the process of identifying the issues, difficulties and potential of the respective Provincial Councils to improve the provincial contribution towards achieving balanced regional development. Finding ways and means to increase the private sector participation in the development process without solely depending on government funds is the key feature of this new approach. Not surprisingly, there will always be an intense debate about the trade-off between the growth momentum of an economy and the equitable distribution of benefits.

You are notorious for your ability to pick apart shallow arguments and for your intolerance of superficiality. Your brilliant mind has often put you at the forefront of European debates. In the 1990s you were already writing about how to build a more deeply integrated European framework around the countries that would go on to share the single currency.3 You understood very early on that a monetary union comprising different sovereign states can only be sustainable if there is mutual trust. And you realised that trust does not emerge through declarations or treaties: it is built through actions that demonstrate the commitment of states to abide by the promises they have signed up to. You saw, in other words, that rules are not an end in themselves. I have so often heard you mention the words “implementation, implementation”, because you knew that it is through faithful implementation and respect for the rules that trust builds up between countries. And it is once trust has developed that more sharing of sovereignty can follow, which reinforces the strength of the Union and each of its members. In the face of changing reality, the challenge, of course, is how to ensure that governance is both credible and flexible. As you have said yourself, “sticking to rules […] does not mean a lack of creativity or originality.” 4 And it is this spirit that we will need to channel in our efforts to deepen our Economic and Monetary Union.
We second have to combat pro-cyclicality everywhere in the global financial system, we third have to combat short-termism and we fourth have to very significantly improve risk management in the private sector in general. Moreover, we have to improve surveillance, at a global level, of the economies that are systematically important. It is not only China, the US and Europe, but it is also the other members of the G20, because they are systematically important. If everything is settled as regards the financial system, and if we really go without any taboos in the directions that are presently suggested we can succeed. This includes the 67 measures suggested by the Financial Stability Forum that have been accepted by the international community. But on the other hand, if we maintain the possibility of the global economy having big imbalances that would pile up for years, we know that there will be recurrent corrections which will be equivalent to the earthquake that you have when continents are moving, which at some point leads to a collision. We have to prevent that too. We do not speak too much about that, but it is extremely important. FT: Have the politicians lagged behind the financial markets? Certainly, the technocrats, the central banks understood… The politics has lacked, hasn't it? Trichet: I would not say that. The Central Banks have indeed been instrumental in organising what I would call a line of defense against the “systemic liquidity risk”.

It is certainly not easy to eliminate, otherwise we wouldn't see the same phenomenon in the US and in Europe, but at least we are progressively attenuating the problem. FT: You said last week that you have an opportunity next week to view the operational framework, liquidity regime. You seem to contain a hint that maybe changes might be planned. Can you tell us about that without…? I don't expect you to tell us what you decide, but what would the aim be? Would it be perhaps to apply more whip on banks to encourage…? Trichet: I can say nothing at this stage. FT: What about buying debt, though; buying government debt? Would you consider such a move at the ECB? Trichet: Again, I have said that experience has demonstrated that we had to prepare for unexpected exceptional situations, and I would say that I would not eliminate anything ex ante, and equally I will not pre-commit to anything ex ante. We'll always look at the situation on the basis of our own analysis, taking everything into account. Today, we will certainly not consider that it will be appropriate at all. You were speaking of quantitative measures. There is a measure of quantity, which is impressive today – I'm speaking of both sides of the Atlantic, and both sides of the Channel – which is the size of the balance sheet of the central bank.
Moreover, the conclusions of the report on economic developments and monetary and financial situation are similar to the analyses and conclusions of the Bank of Albania at the end of 2016. In concrete terms, the Albanian economy has accelerated the growth pace driven mainly by the accommodative monetary policy of the Bank of Albania and its effective pass-through to the economy. These factors, coupled with the further recovery of domestic demand will play a significant role in the further growth of economic activity during 2017. The Report points to the important fact that the banking system is liquid, well capitalised and capable to withstand shocks that may come from the external sector. It identifies non-performing loans as the main risk not only to the system’s soundness but also to the monetary policy passthrough in credit growth for the private sector. The report assesses positively the coordinated plan of actions by the Bank of Albania in cooperation with the Government of Albania and international institutions, to address comprehensively and definitively the issues of nonperforming loans. The action plan of the Bank of Albania is a broad and complex process, which consists in legal and institutional regulations and decisions. I am happy to see that the EBRD has reached the conclusion that this legal, regulatory and institutional process will contribute to reducing the nonperforming loans, in the long term.

Gent Sejko: Judging the progress achieved regarding reforms and economic policies Opening address by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, at the the presentation of the EBRD's Transition Report 2016-2017, Tirana, 27 January 2017. * * * Dear EBRD representatives, Dear participants, It is a special pleasure for us to host this event again and offer our cooperation for the presentation of the Transition Report 2016–2017, compiled by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. While only one year has passed since the last presentation, the challenges facing the global economy have been numerous. They are rather complex, creating the perception that we are before a new era. The existing problems, combined with the political, economic, and social developments in recent years, have contributed to the insofar convergence process. Nonetheless, the Transition Report evidences and documents, professionally and reliably, the economic, legal and institutional progress made in terms of transition and convergence, providing the appropriate space and priority for the future reforms. This is notably an independent assessment and a contemporary standard that helps us objectively judge on the progress achieved regarding reforms and economic policies implemented by the authorities in the relevant country. Figuratively, it sets the pace with which the society may assess the responsibility and accountability of the authorities to the public and the market. In this context, the report assesses as positive the reforms and economic policies undertaken by the Albanian authorities.