samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
This is really a point of caution for SSA, because there have been calls for the Governments in Africa to emulate the actions taken by developed economies to support private sector companies and the financial sector in general in a manner that expands the reach of government. This course of action needs to be avoided in Africa because it risks undermining both public and private institutions, whose development has been an important part of the success of African economies in generating high rates of growth during this decade. Whilst greater fiscal discipline has led to lower and more sustainable budget deficits, real yield rates on long-term government bonds remain high in many African economies, suggesting that investors have not yet fully priced in the significant improvement in macroeconomic fundamentals and that their inflation expectations remain high. Central banks in Africa are also constrained in their ability to inject liquidity into the financial system by purchasing available government or any other type of securities in the market. This constraint is at two levels: first the financial systems in Africa have not been impaired and the money markets have continued to function regularly, without a significant and prolonged liquidity crisis – largely due to the absence of any impaired or toxic assets in the banking system. Second, credit expansion to the non-Government sector remains strong.

The Government has in fact been able to draw on its PRGF resources to compensate for the shortfalls in Government revenues over the first half of 2009 that I have alluded to earlier. However, when all is said and done, Africa still needs to mobilize both foreign and domestic sources of finance that provide sustainable sources of investment. How can Africa best arrest the recent reversal of FDI inflows generated by the global financial and economic crisis and encourage domestic resource mobilization i.e. boost domestic savings rates? In my view, ensuring that we retain our focus on consolidating macroeconomic stability is a critical element of Africa’s response to the current crisis. For many of our economies, inflation has been pushed beyond the single digit level, and we must all therefore work hard to re-establish low levels of inflation as soon as possible. The ability to attract FDI inflows is also a function of the supporting infrastructure and the existence of a business environment that supports innovation, initiative, and hard work. In this regard Africa must not relent on efforts to improve infrastructure development, and lower the cost of doing business. This is a process which is being actively pursued in Zambia, where great strides have been made to reduce the number of business licenses required and to streamline licensing procedures, in addition to the establishment of an organisation, the Zambia Development Agency, to spearhead and support FDI flows and domestically financed investment.
Peter Praet: It is urgent to agree on an ambitious timetable for completing the Banking Union Contribution of Mr Peter Praet, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, for the magazine of the Eurofi conference in Malta (5-7 April 2017), 4 April 2017. * * * In less than half a decade, the EU moved from decentralized banking supervision and resolution to the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism, based on the Single Rulebook. This is part of an overarching effort to create a sound institutional framework for financial integration in Europe. There still are a number of legal, institutional and political problems to overcome before a European bank can operate in the Banking Union as it operates in its domestic market. Several dimensions need to be taken into account in institutional design. First, private risksharing. The financial system is a private risk sharing device, but we have learned the lessons from the financial crisis in terms of budgetary costs, when excessive risk-taking by the private sector was eventually borne by the public sector. Not to revert to the old world of implicit government guarantees for risky behaviour of financial institutions entails making banks equally liable across countries for the amount of risk they want to take into their respective balance sheet. The general principle of the new European rules such as the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive is to absorb bank losses by bailing-in shareholders and uninsured creditors.

In this context, despite high volatility of consumer prices and exchange rates in trading partners, including the sharp decline in oil prices in the second half of 2008 (one of the main fundamentals in Algeria’s economy), the REER has remained near its equilibrium level and the external financial position remains comfortable. 4  BIS Review 168/2009
Our analyses show that in the vast majority of instances the signals and complaints received at the BNB theoretically could have been resolved then and there, at the branches and divisions of your banks, as these did not need to get as far as the head offices and executive directors of the institutions. I would like to emphasize that the BNB had stated its position about the relations between commercial banks and their customers long before this became a hot topic in the media. Allow me to conclude my speech in literally the same words, which I used to speak to you here exactly 4 years ago (back then, in 2006, banking was on the upswing and nobody was talking about crises or difficulties in repaying loans): “…it is in the interest of both consumers and the banking industry to establish between the two sides of the process long-term relations based on transparency of financial services pricing, and on the strict observance of obligations by both parties.” In conclusion, allow me, on behalf of the BNB Governing Council and on my own behalf, to congratulate everyone of you on the occasion of our professional holiday, the Banker’s Day – 6 of December! I wish you a successful 2011 year and much health to your families as well as to the balance sheets of the banks you are running! Happy Banker’s Day, dear colleagues! BIS Review 169/2010  3

Such a transfer would be especially paradoxical since sustainable development has become a key priority and the quality of the environment passed on to future generations has never before to such an extent inspired and guided public action. * The French economy must now be allowed to fulfil its potential. While globalisation offers opportunities, it also creates numerous insecurities. The accumulation of such sentiment may result in slowing down or preventing the necessary reforms. But because the world economy  6  BIS Review 92/2007  is changing rapidly, the refusal to adapt would lead, inevitably, to weaker growth for France and greater insecurity for all French citizens, especially those that are least protected. This dilemma is not peculiar to France. All the other European countries are experiencing this friction between the natural desire for greater security and the unavoidable need to adapt. It is important for each country, according to its traditions and culture, to find the means of taking up this challenge. However, France boasts numerous and decisive advantages: Europe’s most dynamic demography; a high level of energy independence, which is an inestimable advantage in these times of economic and geopolitical uncertainty with regard to supplies; active and dynamic companies, which have been able to take ample advantage of the opportunities afforded by globalisation; and lastly a highly-skilled workforce which, to some extent, accounts for France’s high hourly productivity levels. These advantages must therefore enable France to achieve strong growth that creates jobs in a stable monetary environment. This opportunity must be seized.
This has boosted consumption and private investments, reduced credit price, and eased debt servicing costs for all segments of the economy. Reflecting these actions, the Albanian economy has made notable progress towards steady and long-term growth. The progress has been characterised by gradual acceleration of the pace of growth, expansion of employment and decline in unemployment, as well as improvement of private sector balance sheets. In particular, the banking sector appears liquid, well capitalised, with good profitability indicators. Regulatory capital hovers around 18%, notably above the minimum requirement, whereas the ratio of non-performing loans has dropped to 11% against the 25% maximum level recorded in 2014. Dear ladies and gentlemen, 2/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  The ultimate objective of our work has been and remains promoting sustainable development for the country. The philosophy of our work is built on four main pillars: professionalism, responsibility, accountability, and transparency. This philosophy has been tested and enriched with some valuable lessons learned during the last decade: First, monetary, supervisory and regulatory authorities should adopt a proactive approach to the country’s monetary and financial stability. This requires adequate institutional capacities and adopting a counter-cyclical approach, both toward monetary policy and macroprudential policy. It also requires constantly identifying current and potential challenges in order to address them in due time. Second, long-term economic growth should be anchored in continuous structural reforms.

Gent Sejko: A brave new world? The future of banking in emerging Europe Welcome address by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, to the Annual Conference of the Bank of Albania 2019, Tirana, 10 October 2019. * * *  Your Excellency Mr President, Honourable Madam Minister and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee, Dear representatives of the banking system, ladies and gentlemen, dear guests, It gives me great pleasure to welcome you on behalf of the Bank of Albania to our Annual Conference. This year the conference is co-organised again with the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), namely its Institute of Global Affairs – internationally renowned for its leading expertise across the social sciences. The Conference this year will seek to address the latest trends in the banking industry in Albania, in the region and the rest of the world, focusing on challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us. Naturally, these issues are of great interest not only to actors in the banking market but also to central banks and other regulators of the financial market. As we share experiences and engage in open discussions, we will be able to identify far-reaching approaches that are best fitted to meet the challenges ahead. We have invited distinguished speakers and experts from renowned international institutions as well as other actors and regulators from Albania and the region. I am confident the conference will live up to its reputation.
As I have said on previous occasions, I consider these efforts to be essential, and we wish to boost them further in the future. Clearly, much remains to be done, but we seem to be making progress. According to the 2018 PISA results, Spain has improved in terms of financial capabilities compared with 2015. Conclusion Allow me to conclude. The economic losses and the social problems ensuing from inappropriate conduct during the crisis should act as a powerful reminder that neither we supervisors nor banks can relax. If we are not to repeat past errors, there is no room for complacency. The regulatory and supervisory response has been to correct errors, align incentives and promote a cultural change in the model relating banks to customers, a change that should also be incorporated into their business model. These elements will only be effective given citizens with appropriate knowledge of financial matters. That will help individuals take decisions as rationally and responsibly as possible. With the possible exception of our wedding day, on no occasion do we enter into such a longterm commitment as when we sign a 30-year mortgage. Thank you. 6/6  BIS central bankers' speeches

Undergraduate opportunities to study Islamic finance or Shariah, either as a speciality or a major component of a business degree, should be readily available at local and foreign universities. The challenge is to provide programmes which keep pace with changes in financial innovation and technology. Meeting this need requires rigorous, extended programmes such as the post-graduate programmes in Islamic Finance and Financial Engineering with emphasis on Islamic banking principles. At the same time, relevant organizations can support such programmes by creating funds to sponsor promising students to pursue formal education, ranging from modular courses in Islamic finance to full post-graduate programmes. There is also a need to increase programmes and initiatives that provide education and training in Shariah. Islamic research organizations and financial institutions need to work towards developing a sufficient number of competent Shariah scholars who are equipped with sound knowledge and expertise in both Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic commercial laws to deal with innovative and cutting-edge products. There is also the need for extensive education of the consumer and business community. This would increase the outreach resulting in increased demand for new and innovative products and approaches. Malaysia has implemented a 10-year structured consumer education programme to increase the level of consumer awareness on the unique characteristics of Islamic financial products and the product choices offered by Islamic financial service providers. Increased awareness will drive the demand for a broader range of Islamic products and services customized to their requirements at more competitive prices and through more convenient channels.
The Monetary Policy Council will keep a close eye on other indicators, including all leading indicators of changes in prices, such as capacity utilization rates, production costs, developments in incomes and commodity prices. The Monetary Policy Council will also monitor long-term interest rates and the current account balance. * *  *  These decisions call for two remarks. First, on a technical level, the Monetary Policy Council has decided to monitor several narrow and broad money aggregates simultaneously in order to obtain a concise estimate of all monetary developments. As we have seen, certain data, and particularly, but not exclusively, M3 data, have been severely disrupted recently by several factors, such as the very substantial fall in short-term rates and the ensuing large-scale reallocation of investment flows towards non-monetary assets, higher taxes on money market mutual funds, and the continuing very high level of interest paid on housing saving plans. We will therefore keep a very close eye on the M1, M2, M3, and M3+P1 aggregates as expressions of the underlying growth of the money supply. Particular attention will be paid to the growth of the M3+P1 aggregate covering monetary assets and contractual savings. A very large proportion of the outflows from M3 in the past year was directed towards investments covered by P1, and particularly housing savings plans with a residual maturity of one year or less. In fact, this type of investment at present constitutes a very close substitute for monetary assets.

The objective of a stable external value of the French franc vis-à-vis the most credible currencies in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism was met. BIS Review 2/1997  -2-  Since the beginning of 1996, the franc has continued to move gradually closer to its central rates against the other currencies in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. This firmness of the franc has gone hand in hand with the continuing overall competitiveness of the French economy. The real effective exchange rate of the French franc has improved and exports, as in previous years, helped to boost activity. The seasonally-adjusted current account surplus for the first nine months of 1996 stood at almost FRF 84 billion. This was much greater than the FRF 64 billion surplus posted for the same period of 1995. On the basis of current forecasts, France will record the third largest current account surplus in the world for 1996. Growth in the M3 reference aggregate, which is the reference for our internal intermediate objective, showed a reversal in its trend. The expansion of M3 at the end of the third quarter of 1995 was close to its medium-term growth target path of 5%, but subsequently slowed sharply. The twelve-month increase of 4% in December 1995 gave way to a contraction of 0.4% in October 1996, the last month for which figures are available.
The reason is that the inflation target, which is governed by regulation in pursuance of other provisions of the Act, provides the central bank with a suitable mandate. The central bank is no longer a limited liability company as it was until 1985, but a separate legal entity owned by the state. The central bank shall submit matters of special importance to the Ministry of Finance before making a decision. Although this submission arrangement gives the Ministry of Finance an opportunity to state its views, and obliges Norges Bank to consider them, it does not relieve Norges Bank of the full responsibility for its decisions. The text of the Act does not specify which matters are not only important, but of special importance. The preparatory works of the Act provide little guidance today. When the Act was under preparation, the interest rate was not a policy instrument, but had the nature of being an end in itself. It was rarely changed, and then only in critical situations for the Norwegian economy. In the period of exchange rate management in the 1990s, changes in the key rate were also linked to large currency inflows or outflows that might indicate substantial imbalances in our economy. In the past 10–12 years this has changed completely. Norges Bank operates a target set by the government authorities, and interest rate changes are nearly always small and rarely come as a surprise to economic agents.

Joseph Yam: A new euro clearing system for Hong Kong Remarks by Mr Joseph Yam, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, at the signing ceremony for the appointment of Standard Chartered Bank as settlement institution for the euro clearing system in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 3 July 2002. *  *  *  We live in a financial world where boundaries and barriers are progressively collapsing, whether as the result of conscious policy decisions in favour of liberalisation or because of the new vistas opened up by the onward march of information technology. Thus, restrictions on providing or using services across geographic or political borders are on the decline. Particular transactional services, such as quoting, dealing, confirming, settling, delivering, paying and safe-keeping, are increasingly footloose, in the sense that many of them can be readily accessed from remote locations. Moreover, the development of interfaces between systems in different parts of the world provides scope for continuous 24-hour real-time trading. At the same time, the regulatory framework is tending towards standardisation around the world, thereby reducing the potential for regulatory arbitrage between jurisdictions. As a result of these various developments, the marketplace in which we can operate is potentially ever larger, but at the same time the potential number of competitors is ever growing. Against this background, financial centres must be nimble, competitive, efficient and safe, and alert to the changing world, if they are to thrive. One of the essentials is that they must offer an effective and robust financial infrastructure.
For example, the Riksbank in Sweden reports to the Swedish Parliament’s Finance Committee on the conduct of monetary policy at least twice a year. Canada has a similar arrangement. The Bank of England must write an open letter to the Minister of the Exchequer if inflation deviates from the target by more than one percentage point. In the letter, the bank must explain why the target has not been reached and what measures will be initiated. In Norway in the summer of 2003, the Ministry of Finance asked Norges Bank to provide a more detailed account of actual price developments in relation to the monetary policy target. At that time, inflation was more than one percentage point below the target. Many central banks are required to inform the Ministry of Finance concerning their use of monetary policy instruments. The formal frameworks vary. The central banks in Australia and Canada have regular consultations with the government authorities concerning monetary policy. In Sweden, the central bank informs the authorities in advance about important monetary policy decisions. This is also the practice in New Zealand. Norges Bank has provided information to the Ministry of Finance in special meetings ever since the Bank received instrument independence in 1986. The Ministry can then also express their view. This procedure does not reduce the Executive Board’s responsibility for their decisions. In some central banks, government representatives can participate in monetary policy committee meetings, as a rule without voting rights.

It is reasonable to expect that some of the differences will disappear over time. Result With more than ten years of experience with inflation targeting, we can now evaluate what the countries have achieved. Inflation had already fallen somewhat among the OECD countries that first introduced inflation targeting. Inflation has fallen further and has remained at the lower level. There is also considerably less variability in inflation. Inflation targeting in Chile and Israel reduced inflation from a very high level. There is also less variability in inflation. The countries that introduced inflation targeting from the end of the 1990s may be divided into countries with high inflation and countries with low inflation at the time of the shift in monetary policy. Inflation has remained low and stable in those countries that initially had low inflation. The countries  BIS Review 43/2005  5  where inflation was high have so far experienced the same favourable developments as Chile and Israel. Many of the countries that have inflation targeting today previously had a fixed exchange rate regime. With inflation targeting, the nominal exchange rate fluctuates. In those countries that introduced inflation targeting first, fluctuations in the exchange rate have diminished. Changes in the exchange rate are of importance to interest rate setting because the exchange rate affects inflation and output. When there are prospects of moderate economic activity, low wage growth and low inflation, the central bank will reduce the interest rate. This will normally result in a weaker currency.