samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
For example, the infusion of big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning allows a better understanding of the varied and specific needs of the different segments especially the unserved and underserved. This enables better customisation of financial solutions and offerings and choice of Shariah contracts as Islamic financial institutions have greater understanding of the risk dimensions and hence more robust decisions. One example is the application of big data analytics on geospatial data to identify flood-prone areas and anticipate financing and protection needs of those in the area. It 1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  also enables Islamic financial institutions to better deliver the expectations of Shariah as digitalisation allows for greater transparency and traceability of the flows of funds within the system and with the customers. In supporting more vibrant digitalisation of financial services, the Bank will continue to foster an enabling environment for innovation, such as by enhancing pathways for digital innovations to test, learn and exit. The upcoming refresh of our regulatory sandbox will provide a greater boost to support industry players in bringing financial innovations safely to the market, across different stages of the innovation cycle. We recognise that solution development is not the only way to deliver impact. This leads me to my second point – embracing transformative change. A whole-of-organisation effort to instil total change of institutional behaviour and culture.

I see Islamic finance having a major role in plugging this gap. Most, if not all of the seventeen SDGs are aligned with the objectives of Shariah (M aqasid Shariah), making Islamic finance naturally advance and spearhead sustainability goals. This is the case in Malaysia, where sustainability objectives are materialised through the adoption of Value-based Intermediation or VBI practices. For a few years now, Islamic financial institutions have contributed significantly in pursuing sustainability efforts domestically. We also see many Islamic financial institutions helming sustainability efforts in their respective financial groups, both domestic and foreign. Collectively, the Islamic financial institutions in Malaysia have intermediated over RM155.6 billion2 in VBI-aligned initiatives over the past 3 years. Being a mature system today, Islamic finance is poised to scale up value-based finance solutions and continue to take the lead to create greater impact on the environment, economy and society. Allow me to share how we can make this a reality. First, is by harnessing the power of digitalisation. Technology may not be the silver bullet. But, it holds massive potential to revolutionise and transform the way value is delivered in finance. Studies show that an estimated 70% of new value to be created in the economy over the next decade will be based on digitally enabled platforms3, priming conditions for breakthrough innovation to perennial problems. I believe, with the right and responsible application, emerging technologies can amplify the impact of Islamic finance in meeting sustainability goals.
From the standpoint of the banking sector, the ultimate impact of the crisis will depend both on its scale and duration and on the effectiveness of economic policies in mitigating its effects on households and firms. Along these lines and in the case of monetary policy, in December we extended our pandemic emergency purchase programme until at least March 2022 to ensure that financing conditions are favourable. More recently, the ECB has sought to counter the rise in long-term interest rates observed in recent months, in a setting in which the macroeconomic projections are similar to those in December, with a medium-term inflation forecast some distance off our objective and below that expected before the crisis. Specifically, at the ECB we have stated our intent to use the flexibility of our pandemic emergency purchase programme to increase purchase volumes in the coming months. From the vantage of the macro- and micro-supervisory authorities, we have continued to stress that the use of capital buffers by banks is appropriate in the current situation in order to recognise credit impairment and to continue providing sound credit to economic agents. Our empirical analysis shows that the use of these buffers would give rise to a positive effect on economic growth which, in turn, would ultimately translate into likewise higher solvency levels. 5  One issue worth monitoring in the coming months will, precisely, be the capacity of, or incentives for, banks to use the capital buffers available in the face of risk-materialisation scenarios.

The government has translated[1] this into three objectives: to spur a vibrant, innovative, and internationally competitive insurance sector; to protect policyholders and ensure the safety and soundness of firms; and to support insurance firms to provide long-term capital to support growth, including investment in infrastructure, venture capital and growth equity, and other long-term productive assets, as well as investment consistent with the government’s climate change objectives. These are consistent and mutually supportive objectives. Safety and soundness underpin the other two objectives: the sector can only be internationally competitive if it operates within a robust and reliable infrastructure, which includes the prudential regime as well as things like the legal system; and only a financially sound insurance sector  Goldilocks and the three pillars: how much capital is just right? ‐ speech by Anna Sweeney | Bank of England  Page 2  can make a sustainable contribution to long term investment. Conversely, an innovative sector, that supports the wider economy through long term investment, is ultimately a sounder one. Tailoring will mean reforms to specific aspects of the regime that are not well-designed or imperfectly calibrated for the UK, and are currently distorting incentives and behaviour. The risk margin is probably the best known example. The concept – a margin over best estimate of liabilities so that they are held on the regulatory balance sheet at an estimate of their transfer value – is sound.
News conference  Berne, 15 June 2017 Fritz Zurbrügg  Introductory remarks by Fritz Zurbrügg  In my remarks today, I will present the key findings from this year’s Financial Stability Report, published by the Swiss National Bank this morning. In the first part of my speech, I will look at the situation of the big banks, focusing on the progress made in implementing the revised ‘too big to fail’ regulations (TBTF2) that came into effect almost a year ago. In the second part of my remarks, I will outline our current assessment of the situation at domestically focused banks. Big banks  Let me start then with the big banks and the TBTF2 regulations. The revised regulations are designed to resolve the ‘too big to fail’ issue in Switzerland, so that systemically important banks no longer have to be bailed out with taxpayers’ money in the event of a crisis. The TBTF2 regulations rest on two complementary pillars. First, they are aimed at strengthening the resilience of systemically important banks in a going-concern perspective. They therefore specify higher requirements for going-concern capital in particular, thereby reducing the likelihood of a systemically important bank getting into financial distress. Second, if a systemically important bank nevertheless gets into financial distress – this is called the gone-concern perspective – the regulations provide a framework for orderly resolution, ensuring the continuation of systemically important functions without the use of public funds.

Caleb M Fundanga: Media relations and the Bank of Zambia – a healthy interaction Speech by Dr Caleb M Fundanga, Governor of the Bank of Zambia, at the official opening of the Bank of Zambia 12th Media Seminar, Ndola, 5 October 2007. *  *  *  • The Chairperson • Distinguished Journalists • Invited Participants • Ladies and Gentlemen On behalf of Bank of Zambia and indeed my own behalf, I am pleased to welcome you all, to this Bank of Zambia sponsored annual seminar, which is the 13th in the series. Further, it is also my great pleasure to welcome you to the City of Ndola. Ladies and gentlemen, as it is normally the case, some of you are participating for the first time. For those of you that are participating for the first time, let me inform you that this is your seminar and I urge you to participate freely and effectively. I know that your friends who have participated in the seminars before, will agree with me that, every year that we meet at such a forum, we meet as “partners” and it is certainly in the interest, of not only us gathered here but the nation at large that this spirit is exhibited through out this seminar, and beyond. In fact, let me thank the media for having embraced this partnership and worked towards maintaining it. The Bank of Zambia-Media relations have been quite healthy, partly due to annual interaction through Media Seminars.
On the basis of these analyses, a strong real krone exchange rate and weak competitiveness will apply to a period from the beginning of the 1970s in which the petroleum industry is expanding and we are reaping the largest economic benefits. Main features of the economic situation Inflation is low. The rise in prices is being curbed by the appreciation of the krone in 2002, the fall in prices for imported consumer goods in foreign currency and strong competition in many industries in Norway. Monetary policy in Norway is oriented towards returning inflation to target. The sight deposit rate has been lowered to 1.75 per cent. Low interest rates and the global upturn are stimulating activity in the Norwegian economy. The output level will be somewhat lower than implied by the trend level. This means that the output gap is projected to approach zero, but will continue to be marginally negative in 2004. Growth in the Norwegian economy is projected to pick up markedly this year and remain relatively high next year. The most important contribution comes from private consumption, fuelled by low interest rates and high real wage growth. The global upturn will probably have a positive effect on the internationally exposed sector. Petroleum investment will continue to expand in the next couple of years. Mainland business investment is also expected to pick up gradually. In recent years, many enterprises have rationalised operations.

The analyses are also based on the assumption that the krone exchange rate will shadow the path for the forward exchange rate as observed on 24 June. At that time, market pricing reflected expectations of a fairly stable exchange rate ahead. 5  See Akram, Farooq Q. (2003): “Reell likevektsvalutakurs for Norge” (Real equilibrium exchange rate for Norway), in Norsk Økonomisk Tidsskrift 118, pp 89-112. BIS Review 47/2004  5  Given the assumptions underlying the projections in the last Inflation Report, inflation will be considerably lower than the inflation target in the period to the summer of 2006. Monetary policy also places emphasis on avoiding imbalances in the real economy. Capacity utilisation in the economy is rising, but the output gap, as it is measured by Norges Bank, will only be marginally positive during the period. Our assessment is that monetary policy should be aimed at increasing inflation at a somewhat faster pace than projected in the last Inflation Report. In connection with the monetary policy meeting on 11 August, the Executive Board stated that the inflation outlook may imply an unchanged interest rate for a longer period than implied by the interest rate assumptions in the last Inflation Report. On the other hand, the prospect of continued low inflation in Norway implies that Norway should not be the frontrunner when interest rates are increased in other countries.
Target for nominal GDP growth A further proposal is that the central bank should have a target for growth in nominal GDP. Larry Summers, former United States Secretary of the Treasury and an active debater on many economic policy issues, is one of those who have advocated this. 30 Nominal GDP is a measure that reflects both price and volume. Growth in nominal GDP is in principle the same as the sum of the change in prices, in other words inflation, and the growth in output volume, that is, real GDP growth. 31 One advantage sometimes highlighted is that a nominal growth target “automatically” takes into account the real economy as monetary policy in this case puts as much emphasis on growth in the real economy as on inflation. When real GDP growth is low, the central bank conducts an expansionary policy to maintain the nominal growth target – and vice versa when growth is high. As I see it, however, this is not a decisive difference in relation to flexible inflation targeting, which normally takes into account the real economy in a way that stabilises economic activity. In a more long-term perspective, one can view a nominal growth target as meaning that the central bank has an implicit target for inflation, given the growth potential of the economy. For instance, a target for nominal GDP growth of 5 per cent and a growth potential of 3 per cent will implicitly entail an inflation target of 2 per cent.

Averting an economic anxiety attack calls for a balanced and flexible approach to the words and actions of businesses and policymakers. Planning for the worst is important, but needs to be accompanied by hope for the best. Encouraging news about the present needs not to be drowned out by fears for the future. Now is not the time for the economics of Chicken Licken.8 That means balance in how the economic outlook is described, acknowledging good news as well as bad, contemplating upside as well as downside scenarios, taking positive signals (as well as some comfort) from the resilience shown so far. This is not boosterism; it is balance, at a time when behavioural biases and pessimistic popular narratives offer an unbalanced lens on the economy. The policy authorities, including the Bank, have a public responsibility to avoid economic catastrophizing. Policymakers, including the MPC, have already demonstrated a willingness to act at speed and scale to mitigate economic risks. They have put in place the UK’s largest-ever economic insurance policy. It is important this insurance policy continues to flex as new risks arise, to build damaged confidence among households and businesses. For its part, the MPC has committed to keeping borrowing costs at current extraordinarily low levels to support jobs and incomes for as long as necessary to return inflation to target. 8  The fictional fowl who, having been hit on the head by an acorn, declared the sky was falling in.
In particular, their application should not entail a shift of the riskiest activities to the shadow banking system. In sum, before introducing new structural measures, their costs and benefits should be evaluated from a global perspective, bearing in mind progress in other areas of regulatory reform, especially those concerning new resolution frameworks and the treatment of systemic banks. In any event, it seems reasonable to observe the principle that regulation should impose stricter requirements on the riskiest activities. A clear distinction should be drawn between banks whose trading volume is relatively small and geared chiefly to providing services to their customers, and those other banks with a more marked risk profile. Strengthening of and convergence in accounting standards The last issue I wished to address concerns accounting rules. In April 2009, the G20 called on the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to adopt measures to strengthen and more closely align their respective standards. As a result, the treatment of business combinations and the consolidation of financial statements have been reviewed, with particular emphasis on the specific features of special-purpose vehicles. Work has also been done on defining fair value and on the criteria to be taken into account in its determination. However, accounting standards-setters have not yet reached agreement on the treatment of impaired financial assets (through credit risk provisions, as they are traditionally called).

As Fehrenbach puts it, the key to overcoming the odds in the Lone Star State has been that “the Texas ethic and Texas society rewarded enterprise,” ... “work was the real virtue.” … “We chose this land; we took it; we made it bear fruit.” We are a people, in Fehrenbach’s words, for whom “the cult of courage was obvious.”1 And he distills the Texas spirit that prevails to this day in one sentence: Here, “men who exist get overrun by men who act.”2 It is time for our great Latino population to have the courage to face the facts: They must do a better job as families and within their communities to dedicate themselves to educational achievement. And it is time for all Texans, Hispanics and non-Hispanics, to act to create the conditions that will safeguard and nourish the prosperity of all our children and that of our children’s children. ¡Ándale pues! Delve into the Hispanic experience. Help us understand through this conference and your various studies how to advance Hispanic prosperity. For in doing so, you are helping us advance Texas and the nation. Thank you. 1  Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans, by T.R. Fehrenbach, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1985, pp. 708–12. 2  See note 1, p. 717. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches
Stefan Ingves: Communication – what demands are made of an independent central bank? Speech by Mr Stefan Ingves, Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, at the Swedish Economics Association, Stockholm, 24 April 2007. *  *  *  Introduction I shall begin by thanking you for the invitation to the Swedish Economics Association. It has become a recurring and pleasant task for the Governor of the Riksbank to discuss the Riksbank’s activities with this knowledgeable assembly. Since I was last here, a year ago, quite a lot has happened in the monetary policy field. We at the Riksbank have, for instance, implemented a number of changes to make our communication clearer. We have replaced the earlier Inflation Report with a Monetary Policy Report. We intend that this change of name should signal that the report now contains a description of the considerations we have made when we have taken our interest rate decisions. Another new element is that we have now begun to present the forecast for the repo rate that we consider will provide well-balanced monetary policy ahead. There is nothing strange about our methods of working changing over time. We are constantly trying to improve and develop our methods. After all, monetary policy is also to a large extent a learning process. In part, this is a case of gradually discovering shortcomings in our methods of working and trying to remedy them.

BIS Review 40/2007  5  instance, the members may disagree as to how quickly inflation should be returned to target after a shock. This type of situation may be complicated. But after all, we have managed to agree earlier on interest rate messages that have contained information on our future intentions. Other arguments have also been put forward against publishing one’s own forecast for the development of the policy rate. One is that it could damage our credibility and make communication with the general public and the financial markets more difficult. Let us assume that the central bank first notifies a particular interest rate path but that new information is received afterwards, which leads to a policy rate decision that differs from the path published earlier. According to this argument, the deviation could be perceived as a failure by the central bank and could impair the bank’s credibility 7 . However, I am fairly convinced that it is the other way around – that communication will now be clearer and more efficient. I believe that there is currently widespread understanding among households, companies and market participants that monetary policy must be adjusted when the prevailing conditions change. A forecast is by nature uncertain and this applies even more the further ahead it stretches. We have also been clear on this point. Our assessment of the development of the repo rate, as presented in the Monetary Policy Report, is a forecast. It is not a promise!
We need more knowledge of productivity growth Today, I have given you an account of how the Riksbank tries, in various ways, to assess how large resource utilisation is. One of the measures of resource utilisation that we use compares actual GDP with an estimate of potential GDP. The financial crisis has probably lowered the growth rate of potential GDP. Actual GDP is thus roughly equal to potential GDP at present, even though GDP is only slightly higher than it was before the crisis. My assessment is also that resource utilisation is largely normal. This assessment is also supported by other measures of resource utilisation that are not associated with such large problems in calculation. Resource utilisation has a positive relationship with future inflation. Resource utilisation is thus also an indicator of future inflation. It is therefore important to be able to reliably estimate the level of resource utilisation. But the financial crisis and the associated deep recession have greatly increased uncertainty in estimates of resource utilisation. Different  16  See “An indicator of resource utilisation”, Economic Commentary no. 4, 2010, Sveriges Riksbank. 17  See the article “The driving forces behind trends in the economy can be analysed using a production function” in the Monetary Policy Report of October 2010. 18  See also the article “Low unemployment – a challenge” in the Monetary Policy Report of July 2011.

Thus, the impact of the pandemic on domestic demand was less pronounced. Despite relatively successful public health measures, the large share of tourism services in Iceland’s GDP made the economy quite vulnerable to the economic consequences of global restrictions on travel and tourism services. In 2019 tourism and tourism-related services amounted to about 8% of Iceland’s GDP, a proportion second only to that of Portugal and Spain in the OECD. Reflecting the weight of tourism in exports, Iceland’s exports contracted by 31%, more than in any other OECD country, and service exports shrank by 54% in the wake of restrictive measures taken by all major trading partners. Other tourism-dependent countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal also suffered severe export shocks. The weight of tourism and the effects of COVID on exports  In 2020, economic activity in Iceland contracted by 7.2%, compared to 4.9% on average in main trading partner countries. The difference may appear smaller than expected given the size of the shock to exports. As a small open economy, Iceland imports a large share of consumer durables, investment goods and tourism services. Therefore, a considerably larger share of shocks to aggregate demand tends to be absorbed by the external sector than in larger, more self-contained advanced economies.