samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Since then, there has been a strong upturn in growth in the second half of last year. Available short-term indicators suggest that growth will also be strong in the first half of this year, in line with current forecasts. The positive outlook for euro area growth incorporated in current forecasts is supported by favourable conditions for growth from both the domestic and the external side. The growth in domestic demand has proved highly robust in the face of the slowdown which followed the Asian crises. The fact that confidence indicators are currently at or close to record highs is fuelling expectations that domestic demand growth will also be strong this year and next. Continued strong employment growth and increasing capacity utilisation, among other factors, should underpin the expansion of private consumption and investment. On the external side, there are now increasing signs that the upturn in growth in the global economy has been stronger, more rapid and more broadly based than was expected at the end of last year. Reflecting this favourable external environment, the growth in euro area exports should remain strong. 3  BIS Review 58/2000  There are, of course, some uncertainties surrounding euro area growth prospects. These come mainly from the external side. They are mostly linked to a possible pronounced slowdown in the US economy and the ensuing negative effects on the growth of the world economy. In the present context of strong growth, the outlook for inflation should be examined thoroughly.

All the prominent scholars who are presenting papers today will analyse some of the aspects of how and why market risk premiums vary. Financial regulations and financial frictions are  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  important to our understanding of why risk premiums change over time. A thorough understanding of financial regulations and financial frictions might also be important in identifying unique investor characteristics. Axel Weber will shed light on the implications of financial sector regulation on the functioning of markets and the pricing of assets. Lasse Pedersen has provided valuable research on the micro structure of funding markets and how liquidity risks create systemic problems. In particular, he will cover frictions in financial markets. It is quite clear that the Government Pension Fund differs from the average investor in important respects. In addition, we need to understand how variation in risk premiums can be consistent with highly competitive financial markets. Why don’t all investors buy “value” or rebalance? Ken Froot will talk about rare events and disaster risks, how these events are priced in markets. He will also give insights on individual investor characteristics which give comparative advantages in holding these priced risk premiums. Ken French will speak about two ways for an investor to generate excess returns: informational advantages and systematically harvesting risk premiums which the investor has a comparative advantage in holding. Both Froot and French will mainly talk about average portfolio weights in highly competitive markets.
Conclusion •  the Eurosystem is not only helping to create a more integrated financial market but is also contributing to greater financial stability by ensuring a strong and efficient European market infrastructure;  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  •  Looking to the future, the Eurosystem remains committed to these objectives and will seek to exploit technological advances and innovation while maintaining safety, reliability and, ultimately, confidence and stability. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches

On the domestic front, fast aggregate demand growth continues to be an important source of inflation risks, particularly amid increasing evidence of limits to the expansion of supply – and despite the robust behavior of fixed-capital investment. Moreover, it is clearer now that additional increases in aggregate supply depend on increases in the investment rate of the economy, a process that requires time. In this context, the Central Bank evaluates that the consistent reduction of the unbalances between the pace of expansion of supply and demand continues to be crucial in the design of monetary policy. The Brazilian Central Bank adopts a strategy aimed at avoiding inflation volatility. This approach takes into account the time lags in the transmission mechanism and has proved to be the most adequate to deal with uncertainties intrinsic in the process of monetary policy formulation and implementation. Thus the importance of developing an appropriate analytical framework for monetary policy, including forecasts and the balance of risks to inflation, as well as the preemptive stance in the decision-making process of the Monetary Policy Committee. In the current circumstances, there is a potential risk that economic agents start to attribute a higher probability that inflation increases will become persistent, a fact that would reduce the effectiveness of monetary policy. The Central Bank stresses that the performance of monetary policy tends to be more effective when the deterioration of inflation dynamics is in the early stages, rather than when it is more established.
In the same year, BNM was also the first Asian central bank to become a QFII investor and among the first wave of foreign investors in CIBM. In 2010, the Malaysian ringgit became the first emerging currency to be directly traded with the renminbi in the China Foreign Exchange Trading System (CFETS). In 2013, BNM signed a CrossBorder Collateral Arrangement (CBCA) with PBC to enable the use of home currency collateral to obtain domestic liquidity in the host country. In November 2014, BNM signed an MOU on a renminbi clearing bank arrangement. The Bank of China Malaysia was appointed as the renminbi clearing bank in January 2015. Going forward, BNM will work towards further enhancing financial co-operation with PBC in the area of Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) to provide an alternative avenue for Malaysian investors to invest in onshore Chinese financial markets. BNM has also worked to integrate the renminbi into the domestic financial system by incorporating the renminbi in Malaysia’s Real Time Gross Settlement System (RENTAS). In November 2013, BNM introduced the Renminbi Liquidity Facility (RLF) to licensed onshore banks to facilitate more effective renminbi liquidity management in Malaysia. Today, the usage of renminbi in Malaysia has grown rapidly, with the daily size of renminbi foreign exchange volume at RMB6.7 billion. Malaysian institutions and corporations such as Khazanah, Cagamas, Axiata and Maybank have issued renminbi bonds.

Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Renminbi and China’s global future Keynote address by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the HSBC Reminbi Forum “Renminbi and China’s Global Future”, Kuala Lumpur, 17 August 2015. *  *  *  The increasing role of the renminbi in the global financial system from a trade currency to an investment currency and now its potential role as a global reserve currency will have significant global implications. I am delighted to be here this morning to speak at this Renminbi Forum. The renminbi sphere has indeed extended beyond the Asian region, extending to other continents, to Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The renminbi is no longer an Asian story, but it has now become a global story. It reflects China’s importance and influence in the changing contour of the global economic and financial landscape, and the steps that have been taken to enhance its international role. My remarks today will focus on the increasing trend of the internationalisation of the renminbi despite the recent challenges faced in the Chinese economy; the implications of this trend to the region and finally on the steps that Malaysia has taken as the region transitions into this environment. Long-term prospects for the Chinese economy and the renminbi After decades of rapid growth, the Chinese economy is now transitioning to a growth path that is more sustainable.
Second, regulations will continue to focus more on facilitating market-led adjustments that will allow the industry to evolve in response to market developments, while maintaining a sufficient degree of regulatory oversight to maintain financial stability and public confidence. This includes the adoption of principles-based regulations and an increased focus on harnessing market forces and discipline, as well as internal oversight functions, to reinforce prudential regulation and supervision. The aim is to promote a more efficient and responsive financial system. In this connection, Bank Negara will soon introduce a more facilitative process for product innovations with revisions to the new product approval framework. The changes are aimed at improving time to market for the introduction of new products by financial institutions, while ensuring that institutions put in place a sound product management programme within their respective institutions. The new framework will provide for more simplified regulatory processes and allow greater flexibility for well- managed banks and insurers to introduce new  BIS Review 83/2007  3  products more quickly in the market. Qualifying banks and insurers are expected to exercise this flexibility responsibly and in particular, with due regard to the interests of consumers. The realignment of the regulatory and supervisory structures within the Central Bank in November 2006 has marked a significant turning point in consolidating these regulatory changes.

In recent years, house prices and household borrowing have increased rapidly, partly as a result of low interest rates. We have stated that we feel some concern that this development may go too far, with a risk of severe adjustments in the future. One risk is that a sharp brake in house prices could lead to households perceiving their debt burden to be too high, and that they would therefore quickly increase their saving. This could lead to a severe decline in demand in the economy and in inflation. In the considerations behind our decision on the interest rate at the beginning of the year, we considered these risks to be one reason for not postponing an increase by a few months - which I otherwise believe would have been fully possible given the forecasts we otherwise make and the precision of these forecasts. I would not like to claim that this is necessarily always the optimum means of managing this type of risk in monetary policy considerations. The relationship between credit volume and asset prices on the one hand and monetary policy and the real economy on the other hand has not yet been sufficiently mapped to be able to draw any clear policy conclusions. In addition, our experience of deregulated financial markets is still limited to a small number of economic cycles. At the same time, we cannot ignore the risks to future inflation and economic activity with which we believe that developments in the housing market are connected.
As the conditions are now very good with regard to the immediate economic trends that I mentioned to begin with, and as the structural changes in the Swedish business sector towards new advanced fields of production are moving quickly, it would be a national misfortune if wage formation were to get out of hand due to the parties not being able to deal with imbalances in relative wages. Consequences for monetary policy? What conclusions can be drawn regarding monetary policy? My intention with today’s speech is not to make new statements about current monetary policy. The intention is instead to create understanding for the balances that have to be struck and the risks that must be avoided in order for monetary policy to make a contribution to the positive development of the Swedish economy. The role of the interest rate for demand of goods and services and inflation can be described as follows in a highly simplified way. A real rate of interest, which neither stimulates nor dampens demand, may be said to be neutral. Demand then increases at the rate of capacity growth and inflation is stable. When capacity in the economy is not fully made use of and unemployment is high, the interest rate may - on condition that inflation expectations are in line with the target - need to be below its neutral position in order to stimulate demand so that it increases more quickly than capacity utilisation.

At the same time, there are imbalances in the sense that relative wages do not attract applicants for employment to the areas in the labour market where there are shortages. The challenge is to find a solution within the framework of the scope for pay increases created by the growth in productivity and inflationary expectations on a level with the target. Make use of available opportunities Sweden’s opportunities for regaining some lost ground in the prosperity league are good. Our country has a population which has taken to new technology in the field of IT more quickly than in many other countries; computer use is widespread at workplaces and also homes. According to a SIFO survey, 3.5 million Swedes surf the Internet - almost half of the population aged between 12 and 79. No fewer than 2 million Swedes surf every day. Even more remarkable is the fact that almost 20% of the age groups between 50 and 80 are active on the Internet. Together with some other countries, Sweden takes the absolutely leading position with regard to the use of IT, computers and mobile telephones. Young new entrepreneurs are starting successful businesses within the new areas alongside giants such as Ericsson. Pharmaceutical research and biotechnology are other areas where Sweden is well to the fore. Sweden is investing more in research in proportion to GDP than any other country in the world.
Prasarn Trairatvorakul: Regional trends for monetary policy and the possibility of regional collaboration Speech by Dr Prasarn Trairatvorakul, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, at the 14th International Convention of the East Asian Economic Association (EAEA), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 2 November 2014. *  *  *  Distinguished Guests, Honorable Speakers, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my pleasure and privilege to speak at the 14th International Convention of the East Asian Economic Association. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the hosts for inviting me as a part of this esteemed forum, which brings together economists, academics, and officials from all over the region. Our countries have been overwhelmed by clouds of uncertainties in both domestic and external fronts. So far, the question we have repeatedly asked ourselves is “What can ‘WE’ contribute to sustain the recovery and better safeguard our economies?” And as “WE” gather here today, I am confident that this is an opportunity for “US”, to exchange knowledge and experiences, that would greatly support the development of regional economies and strengthen our regional cooperation. Today, I would like to share my thoughts in pursuit of the answers to our question from a policymaker’s perspective. I will begin with what I see as the major contributors to the past global financial crisis. Then I will touch upon the conduct of monetary policy amongst Emerging Market Economies in response to the past crisis as well as its spillovers.

Gent Sejko: Address - Assembly of the Republic of Albania Address by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, to the Assembly of the Republic of Albania presenting the Annual Report of the Bank of Albania for 2022, Tirana, 6 July 2023. *** Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament, Allow me to start this communication by stating that the Bank of Albania adheres to an open and transparent communication with the Parliament of the Republic of Albania. This communication is important as it ensures the BoA's accountability and responsibility as well as the improvement of the process for compiling and implementing the economic policies through the establishment of a common vision on the challenges ahead and the best ways and instruments for addressing them. Dear ladies and gentlemen, A series of frequent, complex and unprecedented shocks have battered the Albania economy in recent years. After the 2019 earthquake and the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, we faced the economic and financial lingering consequences triggered by the Russia's invasion of Ukraine over 2022. This aggression caused a sharp surge in food, oil and energy prices across global markets, heightened uncertainty amid economic and financial agents, as well as an increase in the overall financing costs both in Albania and globally. The new economic and geopolitical reality tested the sustainability of the economic and financial equilibriums of Albania, posed serious challenges to the Albanian enterprises and households, and called for the fast and coordinated reactions from public authorities.
The SNB is now expecting inflation of 0% in the current year and 0.4% in 2015. In 2016, inflation should increase to 1.0%. Furthermore, the value of the Swiss franc is still high. With the three-month Libor close to zero, the minimum exchange rate continues to be the right tool to avoid an undesirable tightening of monetary conditions in the event of renewed upward pressure on the Swiss franc. Through the minimum exchange rate, therefore, we are in a position to fulfil our price stability mandate. However, the consistent enforcement of the minimum exchange rate has contributed to the substantial increase in our currency reserves. Slide 1 shows that, since 2009, our currency reserves have increased by a factor of about six, and the foreign  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  exchange reserves are almost ten times higher. Our foreign exchange reserves, that is, currency reserves excluding gold, currently amount to almost CHF 450 billion, which is over 70% of Switzerland’s annual economic output. The expansion of our foreign exchange reserves means that our balance sheet is more exposed to the volatility of the financial markets than it used to be. Even slight price changes can have a strong influence on our investment performance. This has made our investment policy even more challenging. However, thanks to established processes and a high level of expertise, we are in a position to meet these demands.

And so the foundation was laid for a modern investment policy whose aim is to optimise the risk/return relationship for assets. However, this was only possible to the extent allowed by monetary policy, which has always had priority over investment policy considerations. In addition to expanding the SNB’s freedom of action, investment and risk control processes were fundamentally adapted and adjusted to the new requirements from 1997 onwards. As a result, the SNB frequently found itself in the role of central bank pioneer, not only as regards the choice of investment instruments, but also in the area of investment processes. It is with some pride that I can report how, in recent years, we have received enquiries from other central banks about our investment processes. The SNB has also played a pioneering role with regard to transparency. The composition of our investments is, to a large extent, accessible to the public. Indeed, the SNB is one of the few central banks which publishes both its investment allocation and the net result on foreign currency positions on a quarterly basis. Investment policy committed to security, liquidity and return Nowadays, therefore, when investing our currency reserves, we base our decisions on the criteria of security, liquidity and return. The currency reserves of a country serve primarily as a means to prevent and overcome crises. In order to fulfil this function, they must, in essence, be liquid. In the past, the SNB defined liquidity by specifying the term of the bonds.
The life agency force has grown to about 80,000, with more of them earning higher average incomes as they pursue professional careers as full time insurance agents. The industry is on a strong financial footing with excess capital of RM23.5 billion, above the regulatory minimum capital requirement. Expense rates have declined from 41%, prior to the introduction of the Guidelines to Control Operating Cost of Life Insurance Business, to 26.3% in 2013, representing significant efficiency gains that have created a more competitive industry and improved value for policyholders. Most importantly, the life insurance industry has continued to innovate through new products and distribution channels, providing individuals protection against financial risks and help them meet their financial goals, whether for education, retirement, or to pay for medical expenses. In 2013, the industry paid out over RM16 billion in benefit claims to policyholders under various life insurance policies. The life insurance has contributed to the betterment of the health and Malaysian in general. The life insurance industry has also had a key role in the development of Malaysia’s capital market. At 104.5% of GDP, our bond market is the largest in South East Asia, and fourth in Asia after Japan, China and Korea. More than RM150 billion is invested by the life insurance industry in the bond market which provides an important source of long term funding that is critical for the development needs of the economy, in particular in financing long term infrastructure project.

LIAM has been an advocate of important issues that concerned the industry and has served as the primary interface between the industry and the Government, the Bank, and other key stakeholders. In this capacity, one of its key 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  roles is shaping public opinion by providing accurate information on the industry. It is also an important agent of change for the better of the entire industry – not just in the short term or with a bias towards any particular stakeholder group. Not too long ago, a media publication reported that life insurance agents are being marginalized and the majority of them earn very low commissions due to restrictive remuneration structures. What the report failed to highlight however, was that such agents were mostly part-timers generating only one policy per month. The report also does not discuss many structural issues confronting the industry; the fact that demand for life insurance in Malaysia remains much lower than in our more developed Asian neighbours. Or that Malaysia’s per capita spending on life insurance of USD330 is lower than the world average of USD373, or seven to 12 times lower than the amount spent in Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong. Also lost was the fact that, the world is experiencing demographic, lifestyle and environmental changes that have profound implications for mortality and morbidity rates. Life threatening diseases that were benign 40 years ago are common causes of early death today due to less healthy lifestyles and greater mobility of labour.