samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Muhammad bin Ibrahim: Malaysia and Turkey – the new silk route in Islamic finance – strategies for collaboration, cooperation and smart partnership Opening remarks by Mr Muhammad bin Ibrahim, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at a business seminar on Islamic finance Istanbul: “Malaysia-Turkey Islamic finance cooperation: new solution – preferred partner”, Istanbul, 29 September 2011. *  *  *  I have the honour today to welcome distinguished guests to the Business Seminar organised by Bank Negara Malaysia, held in this beautiful and historic city of Istanbul. The theme “Malaysia and Turkey: The New Silk Route in Islamic Finance – Strategies for Collaboration, Cooperation and Smart Partnership” was chosen as a reflection of our desire to strengthen economic and business ties for the mutual benefits of both countries. The emergence of the “Silk Route”, a term coined by Governor Dr Zeti in 2006 opens up exciting prospects for countries and businesses. The new “Silk Route” not only carries traditional trade of goods and services of old but also manufactured goods, technological innovation and know-how, portfolio flows, private equity investment and mobility of human capital and knowledge. Today, Islamic financial products and services are truly “new” additions to this trade. Let me first express our heartfelt appreciation to His Excellency Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad for accepting our invitation to speak at this event, sharing his thoughts on Islamic finance. Tun Dr. Mahathir needs no introduction.

Dimitar Bogov: Challenges of bolstering growth rates and ensuring their sustainability Opening statement by Mr Dimitar Bogov, Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, to the Bank for International Settlements Working Party on Monetary Policy in Central and Eastern Europe, Skopje, 11–12 February 2016. *  *  *  Dear colleagues, dear guests, It is my honour to welcome you for the Annual Meeting of the BIS Working Party on Monetary Policy in Central and Eastern Europe, hosted by the National bank of the Republic of Macedonia. I look forward to discussions on the key issues the policymakers are currently facing. Many of the economies in our region have strong trade and financial linkages with the rest of the world. Therefore, a natural starting point would be to assess how conducive the global environment is for our key goal of bolstering growth rates and ensuring their sustainability. Unfortunately, almost a decade after the acute stage of the crisis, it seems that the global environment is still fragile. Although the world economy is recovering, growth rates do not seem to be strong enough, and what is even more problematic, this “low growth mode” might be here to stay. The frequent downward revisions of global growth prospects indicate that uncertainty is weighing on growth. Global growth rates are staggering slightly above 3%, on average, and the medium-term prospects do not seem to differ much.
Ladies and Gentlemen, as most of you would recall, high levels of inflation and interest rates as well as bank failures were a central feature of the Zambian economy during the early 1980’s and the mid-1990s. However, since then strides have been made in achieving low levels of inflation and interest rates and a stable financial sector. As a result, inflation has fallen from 138.3 percent at the end of December 1993 to 9.9 percent in December 2009. The lower levels of inflation have had a direct bearing on consumers as their incomes are not significantly eroded. Furthermore, the Bank of Zambia has strengthened its supervisory framework by amending legislation and capacity building in the supervisory process. This process has allowed the Bank to ensure that only fit and proper persons are allowed to enter the financial sector in order to ensure that banks are run professionally and that depositors’ funds are not abused. In order to further cushion depositors in case of bank failures, the Bank is in the process of introducing a Deposit Protection Act and a Deposit Protection Scheme. This will not only create a safety net for depositors but will enhance confidence in the banking sector. Notwithstanding these positive developments, there has been a marked increase in customer complaints, mostly emanating from the banks’ pricing structure, especially on commissions, fees and service charges. Given the prevailing liberalised economic environment, interest rates are determined by the market.

Caleb M Fundanga: The role of Bank of Zambia in sensitising and protection of consumers regarding banking and financial services Opening remarks by Dr Caleb M Fundanga, Governor of the Bank of Zambia, at the Commemoration of the Worlds Consumer Rights Day, Lusaka, 15 March 2010. *  *  *  The Minister of Commerce Trade and Industry, Hon Felix Mutati M.P. The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce Trade and Industry, Dr Buleti Nsemukila The Chairperson Bankers Association of Zambia, Mr Saviour Chibiya Representatives from Zambia Competition Commission Distinguished Invited Guests Members of the Press Ladies and Gentlemen I am honoured and thankful to the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry for inviting me to participate on this very important day when we commemorate the “World Consumer Rights Day”. The theme for this year is certainly an interesting and important one especially for us in the financial sector. As the authority that formulates and implements, monetary and supervisory policies, the Bank of Zambia places great importance on the welfare of consumers. This is because effective implementation of monetary and supervisory policies promotes price stability as well as financial system stability which in turn creates a favourable investment climate necessary for economic growth. This entails achieving and maintaining a low inflation rate which is key in attaining low cost of credit as well as low levels of prices for goods and services in the economy.
This is particularly relevant in the current setting of low demand for financing in Spain, in which this trend could contribute to further eroding the net interest margins in some market segments. To conclude, let me sum up the key messages I would like to convey. In recent years, Spanish credit institutions have made sterling efforts to overcome the problems stemming from the crisis and to adapt to the new and stricter regulatory requirements. This has been reflected in the significant improvements in their solvency, profitability and asset quality. However, despite these improvements, Spanish banks continue to face major challenges, largely shared with other euro area banking systems. These include, most notably: (i) stepping up sales of non-productive assets (ii) the need to strengthen capital, (iii) addressing profitability challenges without unduly easing credit standards and, lastly (iv) harnessing new technologies in a competitive environment of potential new competitors. In an economy as highly banked as Spain’s, overcoming these challenges is key to the banking industry gaining a sufficient position of strength from which to contribute to economic growth and job creation. Thank you for your attention. 8/8

This defence must be accompanied, on the one hand, by a reform of the rules of world trade so as to include more effective mechanisms to guarantee a more balanced playing field; and, on the other, by domestic policies (flexibility of the labour market, a sound social security network, and the creation of educational and training opportunities) that adequately address the distributive problems that may stem from trade exchanges. It is also worth mentioning the promotion of trade openness in new sectors, mainly services, where the potential profit margin is significantly higher. Without further ado, let me introduce the panelists. We are honoured to have with us today three very experienced representatives of the central bank community of the Mediterranean region. 4/5  Mr. Abdellatif Jouahri, Governor of the Bank Al Maghrib. Mr. Sadiq al-Kabir, Governor of the Central Bank of Libya. Mr. Marc-Olivier Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director and Special Adviser of the Governor. They are very well suited to address the topics of this panel as they have a far-reaching knowledge of the economies of the region and long-dated experience as policymakers. Governor Jouahri, the floor is yours. 5/5
However, governments in these countries found themselves unable to substantially respond to the emerging crisis with public money for the banking sector and countercyclical fiscal policy, due to lack of fiscal space and high debt. Financial markets then began to fragment along national lines and cross-border funding dried up, exacerbated by defensive risk management by banks and ring-fencing of liquidity by supervisors in the core countries. Lack of liquidity, coupled with capital depletion from domestic losses, precipitated a renewed credit crunch. Countries were trapped in a “bad equilibrium” caused by the three-way link between sovereigns, banks and domestic firms and households. Falling credit aggravated the ongoing recession, increased loan losses and further weakened bank balance sheets, which in turn pushed sovereign borrowing costs higher. Fiscal policy, under the pressure of losing market access altogether, took mainly the more expedient route of higher taxes, which led instead to lower growth and therefore renewed market jitters, somewhat defeating its original purpose. The fourth stage of the crisis was triggered by investors in both Europe and the rest of the world. Faced with a downward growth spiral, many investors reached the conclusion that the only way out for crisis-hit countries, given the institutional design of the euro area, was for them to exit from it. This would, it was believed, allow them to depreciate their currencies and regain monetary sovereignty. Fearing redenomination into lower-value currencies, investors sold off domestic public and private debt, further widening spreads and exacerbating bad equilibria within vulnerable economies.

This included a new program to purchase an additional $ billion a month of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The FOMC reiterated in October that it will continue its purchases of agency MBS, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other tools as appropriate until there is a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market in a context of price stability. Monetary policy works in large part through its effect on financial markets and financial conditions. The impact on economic activity depends on the extent to which policy actions are effectively transmitted to key sectors of the economy. While actions such as MBS purchases help ease financial conditions more broadly, a key channel through which monetary policy affects the economy is through the housing and mortgage markets. An easing of policy lowers the secondary market rate at which mortgage-backed securities trade, which puts downward pressure on the primary mortgage interest rate. A lower primary mortgage rate enables borrowers to refinance their existing loans at lower rates, and increases demand for home purchases, supporting house prices and household wealth, which in turn may increase household access to credit. We have seen this channel in operation since the September FOMC meeting. Yields on newly issued agency MBS have declined about 45 basis points and the Freddie Mac survey 30-year primary rate has declined 23 basis points to 3.32 percent.
The reality I think is more complex. As I said at the outset, the growth of credit has been part of the development of the economy for at least the past 120 years. Credit cannot grow faster than the economy forever. But the level of debt and the rate of growth of credit that the economy can sustain is not fixed. It can and has shifted over time. To learn the lessons of the pre-crisis period, we need to explore whether a shift occurred in the sustainable level of debt during the upswing of the last cycle and what we should expect for the future. There are many interrelated factors that might influence the sustainable level of debt in the economy. For example, some relatively slow-moving factors such as demographics, tax policy, housing supply and inflation are likely to play a role. But today I want to highlight two key factors that may have played a particularly important role in shifting the ratio of credit to GDP during the upswing of the last cycle. First, the level of long-run real interest rates and second, credit supply conditions, including credit spreads. Long-term interest rate The long-term real interest rate is crucially important both to the level of debt and to the price of the assets it finances. Structural changes in real interest rates are perhaps the most important factor in driving a shift in the sustainable level of debt.

Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Opening of Bank Negara Malaysia Beijing Representative Office and initiatives to promote bilateral trade and investment Remarks by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the opening of the BNM Beijing Representative Office, Beijing, 18 November 2013. *  *  *  It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this official opening of Bank Negara Malaysia’s Beijing Representative Office. The opening of this representative office today is an occasion of unprecedented significance for us. This Beijing office is Bank Negara Malaysia’s very first presence in Asia. This is a reflection of the growing importance of China in the global economy and the international financial system and the very significant and longstanding financial and economic ties between Malaysia and China. This momentous occasion also marks the dawn of a new chapter as our bilateral relations transitions and evolves reflecting the significant changes taking place in our respective economies and financial systems. For many decades now, the foundation underpinning the strength and dynamism of our relationship is our ability to continually harness the complementarities that exists between our economies. While bilateral trade has consistently been expanding at double digit growth rates over the recent two decades, the breadth and depth of our relations have also evolved and expanded into greater financial linkages. In parallel to our growing economic ties, our financial institutions have also ventured into each financial systems, further strengthening our financial and economic connectivity.
11  But to set a higher requirement if we have doubts about: the home  resolution strategy, the availability of a surplus at the top of the group or a lack of reciprocity in MREL-setting in other jurisdictions (that is others all set at the 90% end of the range). We expect to say more about surplus MREL and the form it should be held in to be readily available when we come to finalise our internal MREL policy next year. Another important objective for us in setting policy on internal MREL is to avoid any distortion in the sequence of loss absorption between operating companies (OpCo) and the group holding company (HoldCo). We require UK banks to issue external MREL out of their HoldCos, structurally subordinated to liabilities at the OpCo. The issuance proceeds are then onlent to the OpCo as internal MREL broadly mirroring their external form, for example: Tier 2 could be onlent as Tier 2, AT1 as AT1 and senior debt out of HoldCo would be downstreamed as an internal debt instrument sitting senior to capital instruments but junior to operating liabilities in the OpCo. We need to be sure that as losses are incurred in the operating company they are absorbed in an order that follows the OpCo creditor hierarchy and does not bypass certain instruments.

It is not yet possible to tell to what extent the U.S. economy will experience a lengthy, more difficult process of adjustment. That is probably the background to how the Federal Reserve has acted in recent years. A series of interest rate hikes during 1999 and 2000 were presumably intended to restrain the euphoria and excessive expansion. When a downturn then became evident, it seemed  2  BIS Review 26/2001  desirable to try to limit the mood swing by means of the marked interest rate cuts we have seen this year. It is precisely the Federal Reserve’s vigorous action that underlies certain analysts’ view that the current economic slowdown will be fairly mild and brief. If international activity were to move into a recovery, most things suggest that demand in the Swedish economy would start rising rapidly again. The earlier capacity restrictions would then return to the agenda, with the attendant risk of an accelerating rate of inflation. So the situation is difficult to assess and I grant that the judgements our Executive Board has had to make in connection with the present Inflation Report have been more difficult than usual. While the difficulty in predicting the future is admittedly a truism, the present international economic situation is perhaps the trickiest for a decade. Growth with a balanced picture of inflation The main scenario we have adopted in the Inflation Report envisages weaker real economic activity in the rest of the world, with the slowdown in the United States in the foreground.
Starting from this material, the Board members endeavour to arrive at a joint view of economic developments and inflation. By and large, we follow the structure of Chapter 2 in the Report and start with international prospects. Our opinions naturally differ on some things, large as well as small, as can be seen, for example, from the published minutes of the meetings. But an effort has always been made to arrive at a joint view and in this we have generally succeeded. I want to underscore that this is a balancing act. It is important that different perspectives are compared and as many difficult questions as possible are discussed. But it is also desirable that we ultimately arrive at something of a consensus. In the longer run it would hardly be good for the Riksbank to publish six different inflation reports, which in a way would be the logical outcome of carrying the Board members’ individual responsibility to an extreme. This raises the issue of what the Inflation Report stands for. The Board’s decision that it represents a majority view enables us to compile a clear and consistent presentation. The Bank of England has a different procedure that aims to present different views in a single report. The material produced in the Monetary Policy Department is distributed simultaneously to all the Board members to make their conditions as similar as possible.

Stable money, stable prices: these are the very foundations of a well-functioning market economy. There is a strong economic case for price stability, which today is - again - widely accepted. However, the case for price stability goes beyond the purely economic sphere. Price stability, the ability to rely on stable money, is the basis for trust in the interaction among economic agents, trust in property rights, trust in society and trust in the future more generally. Trust in stable money is also the basis for a free society, the ability of people to take decisions and plan their future for themselves. This is particularly evident with respect to life-time savings for retirement, which is a topical issue at the moment in the context of discussions over a greater role for private pension schemes. Private provision of retirement savings crucially requires the trust of savers in the long-run stability of money. Conversely, a loss of such confidence inevitably leads to calls on the state to step in and provide for the future collectively. Inflation undermines trust in money and in property rights more generally. This mechanism was apparently recognised by Lenin who allegedly remarked that the “most effective way to destroy civil society is to destroy its money”. 3  BIS Review 96/2000  There is a saying that “peace is not everything, but without peace everything else comes to nothing”. I am tempted to say the same thing for price stability.
This is reinforced by a dedicated focus on the vulnerable segments of the society, such as how to plan for retirement, the importance of living within one’s means and behaviours that can lead one into high indebtedness. These programmes are delivered to consumers in the workplace and colleges. Our collaboration with employers has proven to be particularly effective in delivering financial education on responsible financial management. Under this approach, strategic alliances have been forged by the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency with more than 200 organisations in Malaysia to deliver financial capability programs at the workplace. Equal emphasis is given to developing the enabling infrastructure to support the effective delivery of financial capability initiatives. In Malaysia, the meaningful access to financial education contents and tools, a rigorous assessment framework and an effective partnership that involves the Government, educators, non-Governmental organisations and the financial industry form the vital components of the enabling ecosystem to support the overall financial education strategies. In many instances, changes in consumer behaviour are needed for the intended benefits to be realised. In Malaysia this is the case in the efforts to promote e-payment as a means of improving economic efficiency, productivity and competitiveness. Central to this agenda has been the implementation of various financial education initiatives to encourage changes in consumer behaviour and to inspire confidence in the use of e-payments.

Therefore, the inflation outlook in two years may be viewed as a derived objective in monetary policy. In some situations, where unexpected events lead to an inflation rate that is too high, it may be appropriate to apply a longer time horizon than two years. For example, reducing inflation to 2½ per cent within this time horizon may be associated with unnecessary real economic costs. A precondition for applying a longer time horizon is that there is clear evidence of strong confidence in low and stable inflation over time on the part of economic agents. Gradually, as we gain experience with setting interest rates according to an inflation target, the possibilities for placing emphasis on stability in the real economy will probably increase. Low and stable inflation is a necessary precondition for stability in the foreign exchange and financial market and the property market. However, there have also been episodes where bubbles have accumulated in these markets, in the form of sharp increases in asset prices, while inflation has been low. Price increases in property and financial markets may have a considerable impact on wage growth and consumer price inflation after a period. When the bubbles burst, the result may be an economic downturn. In this way, developments in financial and property markets may be a source of a more unstable inflation environment. In principle, it would be appropriate to use the interest rate to counter this. In practice, however, it is difficult to assess whether price trends in property and financial markets are sustainable.