samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Nonetheless, competitiveness indicators for the Albanian economy reveal that there is a lot more to be done in this regard, to face competition both in the region and globally. The Bank of Albania is committed to maintaining monetary and financial stability through: a) A prudent monetary policy. We have ensured price stability, complied with the inflation target and anchored long-term expectations of the economy. This move has increased the space for harmonising better the short-term stimulation with the long-term stability of the economy. In response to shocks, we have progressively eased the monetary policy since 2009. This approach has brought the key interest rates to their record low to boost consumption and investments. The depreciation of the nominal and real exchange rate has provided another incentive for the Albanian economy, encouraging exports and discouraging imports. We have continuously adjusted our monetary operations to guarantee an increasing supply of liquidity against an expanded collateral base with longer maturity terms. Given the current situation of the Albanian economy, we believe that macroeconomic policies should continue to be stimulating even in the future. The need for stimulating economic policies is conditioned first by the fact that the Albanian economy is operating below its potential, as the demand may not guarantee a complete utilisation of capacities. Second, it is enabled by short and medium-term controlled risks to economic stability. In the context of harmonisation of fiscal and monetary policies, the Bank of Albania has supported the increasing orientation of the fiscal policy towards debt consolidation.

There is also a risk that large imbalances in world trade and low employment in Europe will trigger protectionism, which could reduce growth capacity even further. A pronounced slowdown in growth in the entire OECD area is also likely to lead to markedly slower growth in China and emerging economies in Asia because exports are an important driving force behind growth in the region. This could lead to an appreciable fall in prices for oil and other commodities and weak developments in the shipping industry. Just as Norway has benefited strongly from the sharp international upswing in recent years, the Norwegian economy could be affected by such a downturn. The recent change in China’s exchange rate regime and the revaluation of the Chinese currency by 2 per cent will probably not cause substantial changes in the imbalances in world trade. At the same time, daily fluctuations of 0.3 percentage point between the yuan and the dollar are now possible. This allows for considerable variation and it cannot be ruled out that more pronounced changes in the same direction will gradually occur. So far, the Chinese authorities have maintained a stable course. It will probably be appropriate for both China and other Asian countries to shift more of their production towards domestic markets, which will reduce the large current account surpluses as well as curb the build-up of the official foreign exchange reserves. As part of this adjustment, the relative cost level will gradually increase.
Finally, in order to support the bank-based transmission of monetary policy, a two-tier system for reserve remuneration was announced, such that part of banks’ holdings of excess liquidity will be exempt from the negative deposit facility rate. These decisions aim to counter the worsening growth and inflation outlook by means of a package of measures that complement one another, easing financial conditions by a different route. Thus, the cut in the interest rate on the deposit facility will have a moderating effect on yields at the short end of the different yield curves, which extends to the interest rate term structure as a whole, thus reducing the cost of borrowing for households and for firms. This effect is reinforced by the changes introduced in the forward guidance on interest rates, which closely links the potential normalisation of interest rates to a robust convergence of the inflation outlook to a level “sufficiently close to, but below, 2%”. Moreover, such convergence should have been reflected, as mentioned earlier, in actual inflation dynamics. This forward guidance on interest rates and the resumption of net asset purchases seek to have an impact on the medium and longer-dated segments of the yield curve, mainly through interest rate expectations in the case of forward guidance, and term and risk premia in the case of asset purchases.

Statistical data is used in various negotiations. There are many examples. Wage bargaining is strongly affected by the evolution of prices. So-called “inflation clauses” form part of many agreements, for example rental contracts. Statistical data also serve as a basis for the decisions of various authorities. Central banks are a specific category. They significantly affect the economic environment. To be able to perform their duties properly, central banks need high-quality statistical information. “Nothing is more important for monetary policy than good statistics”. This is how Alexander Lamfalussy, the former President of the European Monetary Institute, the predecessor of the European Central Bank, characterised the importance of statistics for successful monetary policymaking. This year marks the fifteenth anniversary on the path of transformation from a centrally controlled economy to a market economy. All areas of our life underwent dramatic changes, statistics being no exception. In the early 1990s, the Czech National Bank worked in close co-operation with the International Monetary Fund. Individual missions visited us several times a year. Statistics was one of the first areas in which such co-operation was established. This is entirely logical, since without the creation of a basic statistical framework it would not have been possible to communicate on monetary policy matters. Among the most important outcomes was a creation of monetary survey. This survey made it possible to compile monetary and credit aggregates. One of the preconditions for influencing the money supply was to establish what is known as the “monetary base”.
And our decision to leave interest rates unchanged in January reflected that view. Although house prices do not enter the CPI directly, the Committee will continue to monitor the housing market as carefully as before in order to assess the implications for the inflation outlook resulting from changes in the balance between nominal demand and supply and in the exchange rate. Equally, economic decisions made by businesses and individuals over the next year or so should be unaffected by the change in the target. If the degree of underlying inflationary pressure remains  2  BIS Review 5/2004  unchanged, and there is no difference in the stance of monetary policy, then the rates of increase of wages, earnings and prices that are consistent with the new target are no different from those which were compatible with the old target. In other words, wage bargaining should be unaffected by the switch in inflation target - as should price setting by firms. Of course, the new target will make clearer how much of an increase in money earnings represents a real rise in living standards - a pay increase of 2½% that was described as a “cost of living” rise under RPIX will now be shown by the CPI as a ½% increase in real pay, even though no individual price has changed. The MPC will still need to monitor carefully developments in the labour market in case they signal a change in costs that might threaten the target in future.

Sadly, as Keynes recorded, Aston Villa lost 3-1 and finished that season as runners-up to Blackburn. It is unclear whether Keynes ever again visited a football ground, and there must be a real possibility that, for him, Villa Park was the sum total of his football experience. In later years some of Keynes’s disciples forgot not only his connection with Villa Park but also his view that price stability was a necessary condition for a successful economy. Tomorrow is the 80th anniversary of the death of Lenin, and it was to Lenin that Keynes attributed the remark: “The best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens”. After doing their best to test this proposition, successive British governments have committed themselves to stable and low inflation. And for the past decade, inflation has ceased to be a dominant consideration in the economic decisions of families and businesses. That has been achieved by aiming at a symmetrical inflation target. Crucial to the success of such a policy is the ability to anchor inflation expectations on the target. For this to be the case, the target must be clear and well understood. From May 1997 the target was 2½% for RPIX inflation. But in December the Chancellor gave the Monetary Policy Committee a new target for inflation.
Despite fair growth prospects and subdued vulnerabilities, medium-term growth potential in the region seems insufficient to ensure pre-crisis pace of real convergence. The most recent data shows that the convergence is still there, but it has markedly slowed down. At the current pace, many countries in the region would need decades to reach German, Austrian or Swedish levels of income, countries that we like to use as benchmarks. The last crisis also showed that there can be events that will hold back growth and convergence for a protracted period of time and even work in an opposite direction, leading to divergence. We know that when it comes to living standards, in the long-run it is all about labour productivity, which can be decomposed into growth of capital per worker and growth of total factor productivity (TFP). While we can expect an investments to continue growing, it is not likely that the rates that we have witnessed in 2000s, with strong inflow of FDIs and related transfers of technology and know-how, will be seen again in the near future. That is why the TFP will ultimately prove to be the major determinant of longterm convergence. For us as policy makers, understanding the determinants of technology adoption, the TFP growth, is the key, as this gives us the channel to act through. There is an increasing number of theories and empirical papers linking development and the adoption of technologies to the role of institutions defined in a very broad way.

And data support such outcome, here on a sample of emerging market countries. There is a strong positive relationship between quality of institutions and human capital on one side and growth on the other. Furthermore, in the context of new EU member states, countries with better institutions tend to withdraw more EU funds, which is another channel through which the government can help to increase the growth potential of a country. When it comes to quality of institutions, developments are not encouraging. If quality is proxied by World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicator, there has hardly been any convergence towards Germany, which can arguably be used as a benchmark. Notable exceptions are the Baltic countries where we have seen positive developments also in the aftermath of global financial 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  crisis. CEE countries also lag behind when it comes to the quality of human capital compared to those EU countries that achieve the best results in PISA test in Math and Science (Finland, Sweden, Austria, and Germany). Developments over time are also not encouraging as in many countries the PISA results have actually worsened during the last decade, which is a phenomena not confined only to the CEE region, but to the wider Europe. Such developments are on the one side worrisome, but on the other give us the opportunity to streamline and speed up reforms because potential gains can be substantial.
Lars Heikensten: What is happening in the United States and how will it affect us? Speech by Mr Lars Heikensten, First Deputy Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, to the Swedish Shareholders' Association, Malmö, 9 March 2001. *  *  *  First I want to express my thanks for the invitation to speak to you here. It is always a pleasure to visit Malmö at this time of the year; the signs that spring is approaching are more numerous and clearer down here. The current focus for forecasters — around the world, I would say — is the U.S. economy. As usual when activity is turning, opinions among economists differ greatly. This reminds me of the remark someone made to the effect that if you placed all the economists in the world in a long line, they still would not reach a joint conclusion. That I think catches the mood at present among economists, though assessments do seem to be following a pattern. American economists generally appear to be considerably more optimistic than economists with an outside view of the United States. The United States has unquestionably been acting as an economic engine for global growth for almost a decade. It is equally clear that to a large extent it is the U.S. economy’s future path that will steer international economic activity and thereby the conjunctural situation in Sweden. Against this background I shall be considering a number of questions to do with the American economy and outlining some conceivable outcomes.

Some notable standards that banks adhere to include the UN Principles for Responsible Banking and recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. The Bank of Thailand stands ready to lead and support the financial institutions’ role in this transition. It is our aim to create an ecosystem for sustainable finance that would better internalize a lot of these environmental concerns and issues. This would include incorporating and improving disclosure standards, developing better risk assessment tools, as well as, developing a green taxonomy that is consistent across the financial sector. Let me end my remarks by saying that these are very early steps, and much much more needs to be done. Inaction will only increase the risk of a disorderly transition. 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  Thank you very much. 2/2  BIS central bankers' speeches
This would effectively tighten financial conditions not only by changing the expected path of short-term interest rates, but also by bringing forward the expected start of balance sheet normalization. To sum up, I see substantial advantages in behaving in as systematic fashion as possible in setting monetary policy. But that should be done in a way that fully accounts for any constraints on policy imposed by the economic environment, the presence of asymmetric risks, and allows us to learn as we go. The fact is that the economy is recovering after an unusually deep recession and a severe financial crisis. We don’t have much experience with this type of episode and how the economy is likely to perform. What we need to focus on is not what interest rate a given rule generates, but what policy setting can be expected to deliver the appropriate return path to the dual mandate objectives – the type of return path that standard Taylor Rule formulations achieved in different economic circumstances in the past. Thank you very much for your kind attention. I would be happy to take a few questions.

Published Date: 08 June 2022  "Towards Net Zero in Asia" - Opening Remarks by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Launch of GFANZ’s Asia Pacific Network Central Oﬀice on 8 June 2022 Friends and colleagues Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. There are four key enablers for the journey to net zero: carbon pricing in some form; emissions standards, across various activities; technological advances, in renewables as well as energy efficiency; green finance This fourth enabler is where the financial sector can play a critical role – both the financial industry and those who regulate it – in getting us to net zero. The starting point for climate action in the financial sector is through the gateway of risk management. Before the financial sector can do good, it must first ensure that it comes to no harm. Hence the importance of ensuring that the financial system is climate resilient – that it can identify and manage the risks associated with both climate change and mitigating actions. Seven years ago, Mark Carney – when he was chairman of the Financial Stability Board, and I had the great pleasure of working with him – socialised the importance of managing climate-related financial risks. The work that Mark initiated through the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”) has led to a broad consensus today on the relevance of climate-related risks to financial decisions.
Artificial intelligence and robo-advisory, distributed ledger technology and smart contracts, data analytics and cloud computing, are only some examples of the available technologies to build the digital bank of the future. Of course, as supervisors, we need to make sure that financial stability and prudential soundness are preserved, while at the same time allowing for technological innovation. Dedicated interfaces (or Application Programming Interfaces as they are widely known), need not remain just a regulatory requirement for banks, built to "tick-the-box". These interfaces, could prove to be much more than just a regulatory requirement to serve payment institutions, due to their ability to seamlessly integrate banking services into an e-commerce experience, providing additional outlets for banking products and opportunities to enhance one's customer base. Their "open architecture" nature enables such services to become scalable and economically sustainable even when they are offered through small e-commerce sites with a limited sales volume. In addition to rationalising the cost structure, banks need to identify avenues to enhance their income capacity. 4/5  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  Last, but no least, consolidation can further enhance efficiency through reaping costcutting synergies created through economies of scale. Nevertheless, this will be determined by market forces and the shareholders of credit institutions. Let me now conclude. The transformation of banks' business model towards digitilisation may give them the opportunity in the long term to enhance their profitability by rationalising their cost structure and providing more efficient, tailor - made services to their customers.

Digitalisation in banks could be the solution to a number of issues, such as containment of costs and also keeping up with the new profile of consumers which are more technology-savvy and have less time to spend for making bank visits. Widely available digital innovations such as e-IDs, e-signatures and digital on-boarding solutions are available to facilitate the digitalisation of banks. To this I would like to note an initiative I undertook at the CBC to create a digital customer onboarding platform for banks in Cyprus. After a number of bilateral meetings with banks, a large number of them have confirmed they will join lt. The technology we will use will be scalable. The Central Bank of Cyprus is aiming to publish the tender for the technology provision in the very near future. EU-based banks should optimise their customer experience altogether, bearing in mind that the Single Market is borderless especially when it comes to digital services. For digitalisation to really deliver on efficiency, the digital strategy needs to be part of a wider reshaping of the business model and a streamlining of internal organisation. There aren't many examples of banks which have taken sufficient advantage of the Single Market opportunity, but, on the contrary, quite a few EMI's have done so and have acquired an important market share outside their home member-state, with the Cypriot market not being an exception.
It is more likely that the next change will involve a reduction rather than an increase. If developments are in line with expectations, any further reduction will, however, be smaller than the reductions implemented so far. 13  BIS Review 121/1999  Chart 14 Technical assumptions  • Oil price gradually falls to 120 kroner per barrel • 2 per cent real growth in public expenditure this year • Krone exchange rate 8.30 kroner per euro • Short term interest rates follow market expectations  Legg inn filadresse her  Chart 15 Technical assumption concerning money market rates  IR 99/3  6 4  IR 99/2  4  2  2  0  0  1999  2000  2001  Source: Norges Bank Legg inn filadresse her  BIS Review 121/1999  6  14  Norges Bank has changed its procedures this year. The goal is to achieve predictability and transparency. Each month the Executive Board of the Bank discusses monetary policy. The dates for the monthly meetings are announced ahead of time. Changes in interest rates will normally be decided at these meetings. After each meeting there is a press release at 2 p.m. and a press conference at 4 p.m. The quarterly Inflation Report presents analyses that provide a basis for the Bank’s conduct of monetary policy. Additional information from Norges Bank in English, such as articles and speeches, is available on Norges Bank’s website www.norges-bank.no. 11.

Growth is anticipated to be low also next year and approach trend growth in 2001. Demand growth could be higher than expected, which would contribute to maintaining the pressure in the labour market. Employment is still high and near capacity level, while we see a tendency towards higher unemployment in sectors such as the construction and engineering industries. Chart 13 Unemployment rate. Per cent 6  6  5  5  4  4  3  3  2  2  1  1  0  0 80  82  84  86  88  90  92  94  96  98  Source: SSB Legg inn filadresse her  Inflation is expected to remain at around 2% for the next two years, with inflation rates of 2¼% this year, 2% next year and 1¾% in 2001. Chart 14 shows the key technical assumptions underlying Norges Bank’s projections. Short-term interest rates are assumed to move in line with market expectations, as reflected in forward rates in September (Chart 15). According to market expectations, the differential against European rates will narrow from the current level of a little more than 3 percentage points to around 1 percentage point at the end of 2001. The krone exchange rate is assumed to be NOK 8.30 against the euro throughout the projection period. Developments, as indicated by Norges Bank’s analyses, imply that there is little room for further decreases in interest rates.