samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
They occupy a position in the top right hand corner, with levels of complexity higher-even than commercial bank annual reports. This suggests the vast majority of the Bank’s publications may be inaccessible to the vast majority of the general public. Having assessed my own speeches, including this one, the conclusion is much the same. They, too, are likely to be impenetrable to most. These linguistic issues are not merely matters of careful drafting. They are important at a substantive level when it comes to building social capital, accreting generalised trust, closing the Great Divide. Plainly, there is further still for us all to go, myself very much included, in simplifying our communications to enable us to speak clearly to those we serve. Set-piece communications, in the form of written reports and speeches, are only one aspect. There are different methods and media which can be used to reach different audiences using different voices. Last year’s Open Forum was an example of such an initiative. 64 The Bank’s  63  Results from a poll conducted by Populus for the Bank of England in March 2016 of around 2,000 adults. 64  For further details, please see Bank of England Open Forum (2015). BIS central bankers’ speeches  15  enhanced public understanding programme is another. A third would be to seek different means of engaging more directly with the general public around the country.

It is also a pledge by the industry to provide the required support by allocating the needed resources in our endeavour to create and promote an internationally recognised Islamic finance professional body. Industry recognition to the bearers of CIIF qualification as highly qualified and competent professionals will give an added boost to the entity as it embarks on this important journey. Although CIFF is only being officially launched today, the entity has completed two guiding principles and two guidelines which will be launched today. These issuances will set the minimum requirements on the pathway of becoming Chartered Professionals and for financial institutions to become accredited institutions that would enable the training of staff as Islamic finance professionals. More is in the pipeline and I am confident that CIIF is committed towards developing the highest quality of guiding principles and guidelines that are in line with the current and future developments. Another bold action that we shall embark on is the transformation of The Association of Shariah Advisors in Islamic Finance (ASAS) to become the leading professional body for Shariah advisors. This transformation would further complete the Islamic finance service providers ecosystem. This is envisioned in the Financial Sector Blueprint, with standards to be set for professional programmes, qualifications and continuous professional education on Shariah. I would like to congratulate the Board and management of CIIF on its official launch. I am confident that CIIF can contribute towards higher professionalism for the Islamic financial services industry.
For policy-making institutions, particularly in emerging economies, the challenge to fulfill key objectives like price stability, sustainable growth and financial stability, is driving them into uncharted operational territory. I take this opportunity to touch upon some of the most pressing issues at stake. *** Dear Guests, Life with the Sars-Cov2 virus continues to be an unprecedented health and social challenge. Fortunately, health institutions today know more about the virus and which policies serve best to contain it. Unfortunately, we are still far from a definite and practical epidemiological solution. Against this background, the economic fallout from the pandemic is still unfolding. The strict lockdown in the second quarter paved the way towards a synchronized global recession; the economic activity in most emerging and advanced economies shrunk rapidly while unemployment jumped sharply. However, the easing of lockdown measures in the third quarter and the quick deployment of both fiscal and monetary policies at national level, have started to pull up the global economy from the brink of collapse. The scale of the two key support measures at national level, fiscal and monetary policy, reached unprecedented levels in many economies, not seen even during the recent global crisis of 2008. The aggregate fiscal support at global level has reached almost 12 trillion USD. Key policy rates have declined to zero and in some cases have pushed through that boundary and into negative territory.

The enforced limited social interaction due to the risk from coronavirus has accelerated the shift towards digital business and digital finance. While financial technology (or FinTech) has been on the rise prior to this pandemic, the lockdown and limited social interaction has promoted further growth of this sector which may change the landscape of financial industry in the future. The pandemic may well trigger permanent shifts to the work-life balance. Remote working can become a permanent option in the future as some global companies may have already predicted. A final issue, is how the pandemic may affect the current climate crisis in the long run. Besides the short-term impact of the lockdown on the climate issue, an optimistic view holds that the lockdown may trigger e new momentum towards a cleaner economy. *** Honorable participants, I am looking forward to an open discussion and your fruitful feedback on these issues. 3/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  I am confident a frank exchange of ideas will enrich our joint understanding on the nature of challenges we are facing as well as on the best policies and instruments we should deploy to tackle them. Let me close by thanking you for being with us today! 4/4  BIS central bankers' speeches
Interest rates charged from the borrowers were set deliberately at levels higher than the normal going rates in the market to avoid any subsidy element 20 . This was necessary to maintain credit discipline, keep undeserving groups away from the project and ensure the long term viability and sustainability of beneficiaries who now have to reckon market costs when preparing micro business plans. The failure of many microfinance projects to realise their goals in many parts of the world can be traced to the failure of the promoters to adopt market based interest rates when designing credit schemes. The objective of subsidising the rates has been to make available low cost funds to the poor, but the subsidy itself generates an excess demand for funds and leads to a higher transaction cost for the borrowers. The transaction cost comes in the form of the opportunity cost of time, money and energy of the borrowers who now have to spend days and days around bank branches to have their loans approved and funds released. Hence, subsidised credit, instead of helping the poor, drives the poor to a greater agony and does not serve its true purpose 21 . Training, in both skills development and leadership, formed an integral part of the Isuru Project. This is because training was necessary to convert an otherwise unbankable group of poor people into bankable individuals with a high credit discipline and determination to take effective lasting measures to come out of poverty.

Such a prudential regulatory design would further complement concurrent efforts that are underway to develop Islamic financial markets and Islamic financial instruments. This architecture will contribute towards the development of a robust and resilient Islamic financial system that can effectively preserve financial stability and contribute to balanced growth and development. Ladies and Gentlemen: In recognition of this need, a proposal was made two years ago to establish an organization to spearhead the development of a uniform set of prudential, supervisory and disclosure standards for the Islamic financial services industry internationally. This proposal was crystallized and endorsed during a consultative meeting of a group of Central Bank Governors, and officials from the Islamic Development Bank (1DB), the Accounting and. Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Prague in September 2000 during the occasion  BIS Review 64/2002  1  of the lMF-World Bank Annual Meetings. The endorsement set in motion the formation of a preparatory committee, with officials from Bahrain, Iran, Malaysia and Sudan, and representatives from the IMF, IDB and AAOIFI, to develop the terms of reference and operational structure for the Islamic Financial Services Board. In a meeting of Governors in April this year, Malaysia was mandated to lead a Steering Committee for the establishment and inauguration of the Islamic Financial Services Board in Kuala Lumpur. Today's historic event is the culmination of this extensive two-year consultative process.
Higher capacity utilisation is providing the basis for higher margins in some industries. Service prices, which showed little rise last year, have increased again this year. In many industries, including the airline industry, where price competition is strong, low profitability has led to an increase in prices. High oil prices have also resulted in increased prices, for example for transport services. On the basis of the pay increases agreed upon in this year’s wage settlement, combined with the estimates for wage drift and wage carry-over, annual wage growth is projected at around 3½ per cent this year. Lower-than-projected wage growth may be related to the fact that there were few signs of improvement in labour market conditions prior to this year’s wage settlement. Lower-than-projected consumer price inflation last year may also have contributed. Low wage growth will in turn contribute to curbing the rise in prices for domestically produced goods and services. Prices for imported consumer goods have continued to fall. The decline in prices may reflect high productivity growth in the production of some goods and large investments to increase production capacity, particularly in China. This has led to strong competition and a low rise in prices for internationally traded goods. The shift in imports, for example clothing imports, towards low-cost countries seems to be substantial again this year. Structural changes in world trade have been important for the Norwegian economy, not least for the rise in prices for imported goods and services. The shift in imports towards low-cost countries has come gradually.

The scope is relatively moderate, but appears nonetheless to have reduced bottleneck tendencies in some industries where demand has increased sharply. Traditionally, many workers from our neighbouring countries have contributed when the labour market in this country has been tight. In 2001, close to 30, 000 persons resident in Sweden were employed in Norway for all or part of the year. Swedes who have registered as residents in Norway come in addition. An increased supply of labour from new EU member states to Norwegian enterprises may lead to a higher-than-normal increase in potential output for a period. Many of the foreign workers work for a shorter period in Norway without being employed in a Norwegian enterprise. Examples include foreign contractors and self-employed in the construction industry who carry out various building projects in Norway, as well as others who carry out other types of projects. Aker Kværner, for example, has contracted 300 consultants in India who are working from India on the Ormen Lange project in the western part of Norway. An increase in the use of these short-term contracts will appear as an increase in Norway’s service imports, which contributes to increasing the supply of goods and services without drawing on domestic resources. Protectionist measures may dampen the impact on the Norwegian economy of an increased supply of labour from the new EU member states. The transitional rules from 1 May last year stipulate that foreign workers shall have Norwegian wages and working conditions.
This will give us low market interest rates in the euro area, which is good for growth, job creation and the fight against unemployment. BIS Review 2/1997

Christine Lagarde: Laudatory speech for Dr Wolfgang Schäuble Laudatory speech by Ms Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, for Dr Wolfgang Schäuble, at the VdZ Publishers’ Night, Berlin, 4 November 2019. * * * The English philosopher John Stuart Mill once observed that “a great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.” It is with these words in mind that I would like to celebrate Wolfgang’s contribution to public life. You embody what I see as the model of “Germany in Europe”: the Germany that is an implacable defender of its values and a beacon of liberalism and democracy; but also the Germany that is ready to move when needed to uphold the European idea. This event is not about the ECB. It’s not about monetary policy or other economic policies. It’s about you, Wolfgang. So I will not talk about monetary policy or anything related to it. I was asked to speak this evening when I was still Managing Director of the IMF, and I was honoured to do so in recognition of our long shared history as colleagues and friends. But the occasion has taken on added meaning in the light of my new role working for Europe. There are few who have done so much for Europe, over so long a period, as you, Wolfgang.
At the time of that Report the latest figure for earnings growth was 5.4%. Given historical levels of productivity growth of around 2%, this level of earnings growth was, on the face of it, incompatible in the long run with the inflation target of 22. That led to an extended discussion during the summer, both within the MPC and among commentators in the press and the City, about the extent to which those levels of earnings growth had been distorted by the impact of bonuses during the Spring of this year and so might be expected to fall in due course without the need for an easing of pressures in the labour market. Since August, the estimates of this key economic statistic have been revised - not once, but twice. The good news - somewhat ironic given the amount of attention it attracted earlier this year - is that as a result of these revisions the “great bonus debate” of the summer has become a non-issue. Bonuses, we are now told, if anything subtracted from, not added to, the growth of earnings in March and April of this year. The bad news, however, is that if before the revisions it was difficult to know how to interpret the impact of bonuses on earnings growth, it is, I think it is fair to say, now extremely difficult to know how to interpret any aspect of the earnings data. Statistics, official or otherwise, are neither right nor wrong.

It is not easy, therefore, to reconcile the revised earnings data with other information on the labour market. And these data really matter for the MPC’s assessment of the UK economy. I can promise you that the Bank, the Treasury and the Office for National Statistics will, as a matter of urgency, be working together to try to understand what is happening to earnings. Decisions on interest rates must take into account not only those factors which I have highlighted this morning - the international economy, the possibility of a credit crunch and uncertainty about the trend in earnings growth - but also a wide range of other information relevant to the outlook for inflation, including the behaviour of the monetary aggregates, which are still growing quite rapidly, and the fall in sterling’s effective exchange rate. Over the next two weeks more important data will become available, including the first estimate of GDP growth in the third quarter, a CBI Industrial Trends Survey and the monthly report from our regional Agents. At our next meeting on 4 and 5 November, the MPC will take into account all of this information, and occasions like today are part of the process by which we obtain more information and exchange views with those most directly affected by our decisions. BIS Review 86/1998
Given the prevailing wage moderation, this acceleration in activity has been particularly propitious for job creation: the euro-area unemployment rate has declined by one percentage point since October 1999 and stood at 8.9% in October 2000. Surging oil prices and the depreciation in the euro’s effective exchange rate have fuelled a marked rise in inflationary pressure since the autumn of 1999. Inflation as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) thus rose above the 2% threshold in the twelve months to February 2000. In November 2000, the year-on-year increase amounted to 2.9%. There have also been increasing signs of pressure on the productive system, with the appearance of production bottlenecks and rising capacity utilisation rates throughout the euro area. The latter work out to 84.7% for the fourth quarter of 2000, i.e. almost three points above their long-term average of 81.8%. In addition, the value of imports rose substantially under the combined impact of buoyant economic activity, an almost two-fold increase in oil prices and the euro’s depreciation. As a result, the current account, which had shown a surplus, shrank to a slight deficit. Robust growth for the French economy Following the trend initiated in 1999, the French economy enjoyed robust growth. Although the growth rate levelled off somewhat in the third quarter, it should remain sustained given the renewed confidence expressed by households and the business prospects of the industrial sector, where our surveys indicate that order books are well-filled.

This document will be available by tomorrow on the Bank's web site at www.banque-France.fr, and it will be constantly updated. Thank you for your attention. BIS Review 115/2000  6
But this does not prevent it from being very useful to continue developing aggregate measures of resource utilisation. Secondly, all of the measures described show that resource utilisation has recently fallen rapidly. The GDP gap, the flexprice gap and the indicator that is intended to provide an aggregate measure of resource utilisation show that resource utilisation is already below the normal level. The labour market gaps are lagging behind, but will, according to our current forecast, soon point to labour force use of below normal levels. The GDP gap that is based on an HP trend for GDP indicates that resource utilisation is falling by around 10 percentage points from the peak level in 2007 to a trough in 2010. Although we have used a gradually declining output capacity as a basis for the calculation of the HP trend, this fall in the GDP gap probably gives an exaggerated picture of the fall in resource utilisation during the period as the potential output level ought to have fallen more than is reflected in the HP trend. The deeper and longer the economic recession is, the larger the output capacity that can be expected to disappear. The resource utilisation indicator shows the same picture as the GDP gap, but there are no forecasts for this. BIS Review 66/2009  5  The employment rate and unemployment will deteriorate by around 5 percentage points from 2008 to 2011 according to the forecast we made in April.

But in a monetary policy perspective it may be a problem if resource utilisation is so high that inflation risks overshooting the target. If resource utilisation is so low that inflation risks undershooting the target, the general political and monetary policy implications coincide. An estimate of what level of employment can be regarded as normal can be obtained by calculating an HP-based trend similar to that used for calculating the GDP gap. This can be considered to represent a normal situation in the labour market, without temporary disruptions that affect the supply of or demand for labour. Gaps that measure the actual deviation in employment from the normal level, either in the number of persons or in the number of hours worked, are called labour market gaps. Figure 4 shows two such labour market-based gaps. Capacity utilisation But neither the number of persons employed nor the number of hours worked provides a really good picture of resource utilisation. During a severe cutback in output such as in the current economic situation, companies tend to a large extent to retain their employees, although they have less work for them to do. To obtain a better picture of resource utilisation the labour market statistics need to be supplemented with data from, for instance, Statistics  2  For a discussion of the flexprice gap and monetary policy, see Jonsson, M., C. Nilsson and S. Palmqvist (2008), “Should monetary policy stabilise resource utilisation?" Economic Commentaries 1, Sveriges Riksbank. http://www.riksbank.com/upload/Dokument_riksbank/Kat_publicerat/Ekonomiska%20kommentarer/2008/0803 06e.pdf.
Tackling climate for real: progress and next steps Speech given by Andrew Bailey Governor of the Bank of England  BIS-BDF-IMF-NGFS Green Swan 2021 Global Conference 3 June 2021  I am grateful to Thomas Viegas, Chris Faint, Zane Jamal, Theresa Löber, Timothy Rawlings, Matthew Trott, Michelle van der Merwe, and Karen Jude for their assistance in helping me prepare these remarks. 1  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  It is a pleasure to be participating today, at such a unique event. Over recent decades, our global economic system has faced multiple shocks or swan events, ranging from the Covid-19 pandemic to the global financial crisis of 2007/08. But if we turn our eye to the future, we can see another swan lurking in the reeds, and it’s green. That green swan is why we are here today, the threat posed to our economies and our financial system by climate change. Central banks, regulators and policymakers came together in the aftermath of the financial crisis to reform the system so that it could better weather future shocks. Like before, we must come together again to address the threat of climate change. But unlike before, we cannot wait until the aftermath to do so.

Luis M Linde: A review of the Spanish economic situation; Spain’s Budget for 2015 Testimony by Mr Luis M Linde, Governor of the Bank of Spain, before the Senate Budgetary Committee in connection with the Draft State Budget for 2015, Madrid, 19 November 2014. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, In my appearance today before this Chamber as part of the discussion of the State Budget for 2015, I will focus, as usual, on analysing the developments in, the outlook for and the challenges facing the Spanish economy. On this occasion, I am speaking just two weeks after the start-up of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, so I will also refer to the progress of the Banking Union. The euro area economy The Spanish economy is currently in a less favourable external environment than had been anticipated a year ago. In recent months, growth forecasts for the global economy for 2014 and 2015 have been revised downwards, and the loss of momentum of the recovery is more marked in the European countries which, as we all know, are our main trading and financial partners. Euro area GDP flatlined in the second quarter of this year and the information received since has led international organisations and private analysts to revise their medium-term growth forecasts downwards. At present, the scenario considered most likely is one of weak GDP growth rates, which will be uneven from one country to another and prone to possible downscaling.