samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
This would also include new growth areas such as micro-financing or agricultural lending. The aim is to produce niche players delivering specialized value added products and services that will be able to cater towards specific segments of the market and over time, and thus develop a more comprehensive financial system that would contribute towards the development of a more diversified economy. Given the background of emerging economies, the transition to a more liberalised environment would indeed demand appropriate sequencing of measures and careful management of the liberalisation process that are guided by broad principles that would ensure that there are benefits and opportunities brought about by the liberalisation process. The financial sector is an important and strategic sector that has a significant role in supporting the economic growth and transformation. Liberalisation needs to commensurate with the pace of economic development and strength of the regulatory structure to avoid destabilising effects on the stability of the financial sector and the overall economy. Key considerations for the strategic opening up of the financial sector would be to steer the financial sector towards increased competition whilst ensuring domestic financial institutions are not marginalised by the liberalisation process. Liberalisation should instead serve as a catalyst for domestic banks to further improve their performance and enhance efficiency and capabilities in order to sharpen their competitive edge and elevate themselves to a level that is at par with the international players.

The object of this forum is to discuss the prime pre-conditions to be met by the Bank of Albania before launching the implementation of a new monetary policy strategy, with a particular emphasis on Albania’s membership to the European Union in the long-term run. The fact that we have been successful in controlling inflation during the last years holds true. We have managed to attain a general stability and I believe the policy adopted by us has been one of the key factors. Another fact which holds true is that, for some time, we have been considering to take another step, attempting a more sophisticated, effective and certainly a more responsible and transparent monetary policy approach. To this aim, we have come to the conclusion that the actual framework of the monetary policy requires the necessity of being further completed and perfected with standard elements, adopted by other countries in the world and where the targeting inflation regime has proven to be successful. We are aware that this is not an effortless initiative to be seized. Therefore, I consider that this is a great fortune for the Bank of Albania to have the possibility, on the verge of discussing the preconditions of adopting this regime, to closely discuss and consult the distinguished guests present in this seminar. I trust straight opinions and recommendations shall be brought forth, be they challenging to be accomplished. According to theory, inflation targeting is a direct regime.
12  12  10  10  8  8  6  6  4  4  2  2  0  0 81  83  85  87  89  91  93  95  97  99  01  03  05  07  09  Sources: Statistics Sweden and the Riksbank  BIS Review 132/2007  11  8. Wages expected to rise faster Different agents’ expectations of the rate of wage increase two years ahead, Per cent 5  5  4  4  3  3  2  2  Employer organisations Employee organisations Purchasing managers  1  1  Wages in the business sector, outcome 0  0 98  99  00  01  02  03  04  05  06  07  08  09  Sources: The National Mediation Office and Prospera Research AB  9. Cost pressures increasing Annual percentage change. Broken lines and striped bars refer to the Riksbank’s forecasts. 8  8 Unit labour cost 7 6  Hourly labour cost  7  Productivity  6  5  5  4  4  3  3  2  2  1  1  0  0 -1  -1 94  96  98  00  02  04  06  08  10  Sources: Statistics Sweden and the Riksbank  12  BIS Review 132/2007  10.

There were also some problems with the earlier signalling which we wanted to avoid. In certain situations it was probably difficult to determine whether the signal in a speech should be interpreted as an individual member’s opinion or whether it reflected the views of a majority on the Executive Board. If the individual Board members sent out different signals it could probably also be difficult to distinguish a clear message. In addition, it was unclear when and if the signals should be sent out. Finally, and at least as important in my opinion, there was also a democratic aspect to this question. This has to do with the fact that we are an independent authority and that the general public should have good insight into the decision-making process. There must be no doubt that the interest rate decisions are actually made at the monetary policy meetings and not at some other, more diffuse, point in time – in some informal way that prevents insight. If the signalling prior to the meetings leads people to believe that the interest rate decisions have been made in advance of the meetings, then doubts may arise. Why has this led to a debate? The fact that the debate on our communication has been fairly lively probably has several explanations. To begin with, the pace of our development towards openness and clarity has been fairly high over the past two years. And if one makes a lot of changes in a short time it is not so surprising that discussions arise.
Emerging versus developed economies”, Norges Bank Working Paper 2012/11 http://www.norges-bank.no/no/om/publisert/publikasjoner/working-papers/2012/11/. 4  Frankel, Jeffrey A. (2011), “How Can Commodity Producers Make Fiscal and Monetary Policy Less Procyclical?” in Beyond the Curse: Policies to Harness the Power of Natural Resources, ed. by Rabah Arezki, Thorvaldur Gylfason and Amadou Sy, International Monetary Fund. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  •  All government revenues from the oil sector must be transferred to the fund. •  Government spending, on average over the cycle, must be limited to the expected real return on the fund – estimated at 4 percent. This is known as the fiscal rule. The aim is to spend only the return generated by the fund’s investments, not the capital itself. •  All of the fund’s capital is invested abroad. Chart: Projected size of the oil fund At the time the fund was established, Norway was in the midst of a deep recession, and many doubted that any petroleum revenues would ever be saved. However, after a few years, the government’s cash flow from the petroleum sector started to increase sharply. The savings plan has since remained intact and the fund has now reached a size of more than USD 700 billion, or 140 percent of GDP. Chart: Structural non-oil budget surplus As a result of the fiscal rule, economic policy is more robust: First, by decoupling spending from current petroleum revenues, the fiscal rule provides for a gradual and sustainable phasing-in of petroleum revenue spending.

Global economic outlook  Let me turn to the global economic outlook. Growth was modest in the advanced economies in the first quarter of 2023. Although inflation declined again in many countries, it remains clearly above central banks’ targets. Core inflation in particular is still stubbornly elevated. Page 2/8  Zurich, 22 June 2023 Thomas Jordan, Martin Schlegel and Andréa M. Maechler  News conference  Against this background, numerous central banks have tightened their monetary policy further, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than in the previous quarters. The growth outlook for the global economy remains subdued. This is in particular attributable to the loss of purchasing power due to inflation in recent quarters and to tighter monetary policy. At the same time, inflation is likely to remain elevated worldwide for the time being. Over the medium term, however, it should return to more moderate levels, not least thanks to the more restrictive monetary policy and due to the economic slowdown. Our scenario for the global economy remains subject to large risks. In particular, the high level of inflation in some countries could be more persistent than expected. Equally, the energy situation in Europe could deteriorate again in Q4 2023 and Q1 2024. Swiss economic outlook  What is the economic outlook for Switzerland? GDP growth was solid in the first quarter of 2023. The services sector gained momentum, and there was also a slight increase in value added in manufacturing. The labour market remained robust, and overall production capacity has been well utilised.
After September, on the basis of its current assessment, the Governing Council expects that a gradual but sustained series of additional interest rate rises will be appropriate. Lastly, the reduction in the size of the Eurosystem's balance sheet will only be achieved at a later stage, probably when the need not only for normalisation but also for a tightening of monetary policy becomes apparent. As part of this gradual normalisation process, the ECB Governing Council has made it clear that it will not rule out any options, including acting against fragmentation within the euro area, and will maintain a gradual and flexible approach to conducting monetary policy. 2. Macro financial risks and outlook In this context marked by the rise in external shocks, strong uncertainty about the extent of their impact and their duration, and a change in the interest rate environment with the prospect of very low or even negative rates over a long period coming to an end, we can collectively rejoice in the fact that for more than two years the banking sector has been resilient; it has contributed to 2  mitigating shocks and not to amplifying them. This shock absorption capacity is an asset that must be maintained and even strengthened. This can be done through two channels: supervision and regulation. The macroeconomic risks and outlook in particular confirm the need to keep the monitoring of banks' credit and market risks high on the supervisory agenda of the ACPR and the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).

In this respect, the High Council for Financial Stability turned its recommendation for a debt service to income ratio cap of 35% and a maturity limit of 25 years on new housing loans into a legally binding standard from 1 January 2022, while maintaining the flexibility margin for 20% of quarterly new loan issuance. This measure aims at preventing excessive household debt in a context where housing loan issuance remains strong, while preserving the French model for financing home ownership. In conjunction with the predominance - which borders on exclusivity - of fixed-rate loans in France, it has strengthened households’ financial resilience in the face of the prospect of rising interest rates. Attention paid to the solvency of non-financial players also takes the form of the standard, adopted in May 2018 and extended until 2023, limiting the exposure of systemically important banks to the most indebted large companies residing in France to 5% of their capital. Finally, strengthening financial stability in Europe requires completing the Banking Union. The approach put forward by the President of the Eurogroup last May consists of a stepwise approach across four main workstreams (banking crisis management, depositor protection, diversification of sovereign exposures and provision of banking services within the single market). This stepwise approach is based on trust and realism. We view this as an asset for securing the political agreement that is needed to move towards a more comprehensive and resilient banking union, but which remains dynamic and innovative. 3.
And Tether, sometimes asserted to be the backbone of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, lurched precariously below parity for a period (Chart 3). These gyrations have multiple causes. But ‘stable’ they are not. And the lack of complete, real time, information on the assets backing the promise of convertibility,3 means that holders of such coins must accept at least the possibility of finding themselves badly out of pocket. Such ‘buyer beware’ warnings may be sufficient for coins that are only in niche use. But they cannot be enough for any that reach systemic scale. And that is why the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee has recommended that, in the UK, any stablecoin that reaches systemic size should also meet standards equivalent to those  See eg Crypto industry shaken as Tether’s dollar peg snaps | Financial Times (ft.com); ‘We’re Not Revealing Our Secret Recipe’, Tether’s CTO Says (bloomberglinea.com); and Whereabouts of Terra’s Bitcoin Reserve a Mystery After Transfers - Bloomberg 3  Bank of England  Page 6  expected of commercial bank money.4 In practice that is likely to mean being issued by a bank, or by a non-bank that: is subject to rigorous central bank regulation and supervision;5 provides coinholders with a robust legal claim; is insolvency remote; and transparently backs its coins with a precisely defined set of high quality and liquid assets. Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P. Digital Asset Research, Inc.  It’s too soon to say what those assets should be.

How much should tomorrow’s central bank balance sheets do - speech by Andrew Hauser | Bank of England  Bank of England  Page 12  bank balance sheet to provide state-backed transactional money is one of our most longstanding functions. The dog may be old, but it can still perform new tricks! I am very grateful to Joshua Jones and India Rimmer for their assistance in preparing these remarks; and to Andrew Bailey, Sarah Breeden, Shiv Chowla, Rohan Churm, Jon Cunliffe, Rafael Kinston, Jeremy Leake, Amber McAlone, Ali Moussavi, Huw Pill, Dave Ramsden, Francine Robb, Christina Segal-Knowles and Cormac Sullivan for their advice and comments.
Because of all that, in order to maintain the equilibrium in the foreign exchange market in the last quarter of 2008 the foreign exchange interventions of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, through net sales of foreign exchange, amounted to Euro 162.3 million while for the period January 01-March 20, 2009, they amounted to Euro 181.0 mill. also on net basis. This is what actually enabled maintaining the existing foreign exchange rate level. As unfavorable developments in foreign trade continue and happen within high uncertainties for future capital inflows and net private transfers, as well as under psychological pressures over the citizens that direct them towards swapping national into foreign currency, we are of an opinion that further change in the monetary policy of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia is needed. Namely, although the registered inflationary drop, when observing just this indicator, indicates lower risks, still the pressures over the foreign exchange rate (as an intermediate objective of the monetary policy) and the growing risks of further widening of external imbalances, clearly seek from us to increase the restrictiveness of the monetary policy. For these  BIS Review 60/2009  1  reasons, we decided to raise the interest rate on the Central Bank bills by 2 percentage points that is becoming effective from the next auction, i.e. instead of 7 percent into rate of 9 percent. III.

The asset management industry continued to grow well last year, with assets under management posting a 9% increase to reach $ trillion. Singapore will introduce a new corporate and regulatory framework to encourage fund domiciliation in Singapore and build up fund administration capabilities. MAS is working closely with the private equity/venture capital (PE/VC) industry to see how we can enhance financing for growth-stage companies, both local and from around the region. PE/VC financing has been increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 30% over the last 5 years. In the Renminbi (RMB) market, we are expanding two-way flows between China and Singapore. Besides Suzhou and Tianjin, Singapore has established cross-border RMB initiatives with the rapidly growing city of Chongqing. Corporates in Chongqing that issue RMB bonds in Singapore can fully repatriate the proceeds raised for infrastructure and other development projects in western China. We are witnessing a healthy volume of transactions now. In foreign exchange trading, we are working on electronification of the market. Digitisation, competition, and consolidation are rapidly transforming the global foreign  BIS central bankers’ speeches  7  exchange (FX) landscape. MAS’ focus is to position Singapore as Asia’s e-trading hub to build on our FX centre, which is already the largest in Asia. We are working with FIs and FX trading platforms to build relevant infrastructure such as matching and pricing engines that will anchor liquidity in our marketplace. In infrastructure finance, the focus now is on enabling capital recycling.
The Decree requires that the four largest banks in Estonia restore their normal services to 70% of their normal operational level within 12 hours in the event of an emergency. How the banks restore their services is up to them, but they must describe their recovery plan to Eesti Pank, who then passes the information on to the Ministry of the Interior. As I understand it, the purpose of the Emergency Act is to see that vital services are restored in the event of an emergency. It is not intended to cover cases where some  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  people do not have day to day access to some important services. Neither is it intended for the purpose of guiding trends in urbanisation and marginalisation. That is an issue for regional policy, not one that requires solving under emergency powers. Regional policy lies within the domain of the Riigikogu, the government and local authorities. That said, cash circulation is an issue of importance for Eesti Pank, and we wish to be fully engaged in setting policy for cash circulation. This brings me on to the second question in the interpellation, and the position of Eesti Pank on the accessibility of cash and payment services across Estonia. Eesti Pank’s goals for cash are to supply the commercial banks with sufficient cash resources and to ensure the quality of the cash.

Swedbank has released detailed data to explain why they are closing branches, and they show that the branches being closed were used by only 13% of the clients registered there prior to closure, and that the number of cash transactions in those branches has halved in five years. The larger commercial banks in Estonia now provide services more efficiently, and one consequence has been the closure of branches and cash machines in rural areas. A comparison with Sweden can be useful here, as that is where the parent banks of our largest banks are based. At the end of 2013 there were 1655 bank branches in Sweden, and a little over half of them were cash-free, which is more than twice the proportion in Estonia, where only 23% are cash-free. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  At the start of June I wrote to the leaders of the local government in Läänemaa that Eesti Pank finds that having a single network of cash machines for all the banks would not improve access to banking services in rural areas. This is because it would not be possible for any commercial bank to differentiate its services from those of other banks by offering higher quality if there were a single network. Furthermore, a single network dilutes the responsibility of each individual bank, making it harder for clients or the public to affect the decisions taken by the banks.
Trends in small bank and small business lending As we evaluate the financial system and the broader economy, we regularly examine firms from a horizontal and aggregate perspective to gain insight on the trends in the provision of financial services in the Second District. Today, I’ll say a few words on trends in small business lending. Of course, looking at trends is not sufficient to identify causal relationships, but it does provide one perspective on these developments and identifies areas for future inquiry. The overall level of commercial and industrial (C&I) lending at Second District firms with under $ billion in total assets has grown steadily in recent years (Chart 1). Since the financial crisis, these loans have increased by just over 80 percent, which is somewhat faster than growth at the national level of 64 percent over the same period. 2/6  BIS central bankers' speeches  Within commercial and industrial (C&I) lending for these banks, small business lending is particularly important, given the traditional role of small businesses in job creation. While data are not immediately available on borrower size, we can look at a simple proxy for small business lending by isolating individual C&I loans to commercial borrowers that are each under $ million. These data show that while the dollar value of small C&I loans has grown since 2010, the pace of growth has not been as high as overall C&I lending growth.

During my brief remarks this morning, I’d like to highlight three related topics that I believe are relevant to you as community bankers: the critical role that community banks play in the U.S. economy, particularly at the local level; trends in small business lending; and recent efforts to enhance the efficiency of the regulatory and supervisory framework. My comments today are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System. The critical role of community banks Let me begin with some thoughts on what we seek to achieve through supervision. A core objective for safety and soundness supervision is to ensure that supervised entities are resilient. That is, a firm should be able to continue to operate and provide financial services across a wide range of economic and financial conditions. Supervisors and regulators can support this objective through our focus on stronger capital and liquidity, comprehensive risk management and robust governance and controls. All of this makes firms resilient to unexpected shocks and allows them to continue to serve their customers and communities. Resilience, however, is not the end objective. Rather, we seek to ensure that banks of all sizes contribute to the sustained and efficient provision of credit and other financial services to consumers and businesses that support the growth and stability of the economy. Community banks play a distinctive role in the provision of financial services, offering a wide range of products and serving specific segments.