samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Trade was roughly in balance. The oil price has rebounded somewhat recently, but is not expected to reach the levels we saw a few years ago. Thus, the high Norwegian current account surpluses may belong to the past. Given the uncertainties related to petroleum wealth, a spending rule more cautious than the permanent income rule seems to be a reasonable strategy. Political feasibility Allow me to round off this discussion with some reflections concerning practical policy. My point is that fiscal guidelines must be politically acceptable and understandable to the wider public. Simplicity and robustness are important concerns. Rules that are not adopted by policymakers carry little value. The Norwegian fiscal rule was introduced in 2001, exactly 30 years after the first oil was extracted from the Norwegian continental shelf. This illustrates that it was not straightforward to arrive at a strategy for how our natural resource wealth was going to be spent. The need to decouple current spending from current revenues was underscored early on, and potential mechanisms were discussed, but these concerns were not reflected in actual policy. In periods, all the oil and gas revenues and more were spent. The fund mechanism was established in 1990, during Norway’s deepest recession in the postwar period. At the time, it was not obvious that the fund would gain much value. The government ran budget deficits in the following years. A first deposit was made in 1996, reflecting a net fiscal surplus. From then on, the value of the fund started to increase quite rapidly.

Øystein Olsen: Does Norway save too much? Speech by Mr Øystein Olsen, Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington DC, 22 March 2018. * * * Accompanying slides of the speech. INTRODUCTION First, let me thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I am very happy to visit the Peterson Institute. Norway is a small, open economy which was transformed by the discovery of oil on our continental shelf almost 50 years ago. Back in 1970, the year after the first discovery, income levels were relatively low compared with other western countries. That picture has changed completely. Lower oil prices in recent years have reduced the relative income level somewhat, but measured by GDP per capita, Norway still ranks among the richest countries in the world. Graph: GDP per capita Natural resource discoveries have been identified as a curse for some countries. For Norway, it has been a blessing. We have managed to transform oil and gas resources into real and financial assets. Luck has been supplemented with what I dare claim is a sensible handling of the resources. At an early stage, it was concluded that the resources belong to the Norwegian people. Large savings in recent years means that also future generations will benefit from the revenues. Graph: The petroleum fund mechanism Direct government participation in the industry and an extraordinary tax rate for oil companies, currently at 78 percent, ensure that most of the resource rents flow into government coffers.
SIBA therefore plays a very important role in complementing MAS to ensure that high standards and best practices are upheld in the market. I am therefore very glad that SIBA has taken this role seriously. In Aug 2004, SIBA released the Due Diligence Guidelines, which set out the basic principles on due diligence to be performed by issuer managers for initial public offerings. The Guidelines raise the professional standards of issue managers, and help maintain investors' confidence in the quality of the issue. MAS endorses these Guidelines as a valuable guide to issue managers and underwriters on the level of due diligence expected of them as professional advisers and in meeting their obligations under the Securities and Futures Act and SGX listing manual. MAS appreciates that SIBA is now currently working to release a Code of Best Practices on Debt Issuance. This Code will serve as guidance on debt issuance. I believe this will enable issue managers to discharge their mandates better, and to address potential concerns of investors. Such a code will be beneficial to issuers and issue managers, as well as to investors. Developing deep expertise The second key factor in developing our market is expertise. Investment banking is a knowledge-intensive, innovation-driven industry. A deep pool of highly trained and committed professionals is critical to enable the industry to thrive. The nurturing of these professionals should start from academic education, where knowledge and theories of investment banking could be imparted.

Chart 3: Share of bank and non-bank financing in total non-financial corporation debt financing in the euro area and the United States (outstanding amounts; percentages)  3 / 12  BIS central bankers' speeches  Chart 4: Total debt financing of NFCs and MFI loans to NFCs in the euro area (annual changes in percent)  4 / 12  BIS central bankers' speeches  Such diversification in financing sources is good for the economy, making business investment more resilient throughout business cycles. The underlying strength of the euro area economy continues to support our confidence that the sustained convergence of inflation to our aim will proceed. Euro area annual HICP inflation has continued to increase and stood at 2.2% in October 2018, mainly reflecting higher energy price inflation. On the basis of current futures prices for oil, headline inflation is likely to hover around current levels in coming months. While measures of underlying inflation remain generally muted, they have been increasing from earlier lows, amid high levels of capacity utilisation and tightening labour markets. Looking ahead, underlying inflation is expected to increase further over the medium term, supported by our monetary policy measures, the ongoing economic expansion 5 / 12  BIS central bankers' speeches  and rising wage growth. Overall, though, significant monetary policy stimulus is still needed to support the build-up of domestic price pressures and headline inflation developments over the medium term.
The causes and consequences of the recent Asian financial crises are still vivid in our minds and we from our part, as professional bankers, must endeavor to ensure that they are not repeated. The Central Banks can use both preventive measures and corrective action to maintain financial stability. A constant and continuous monitoring of risks is a preventive measure. Crisis resolution is a corrective action. A strong regulatory regime would ensure the former and a financial safety net is an essential component of the latter. The two supplement each other. The cooperation of all parties concerned in both these actions is of paramount importance in maintaining financial system stability. In Sri Lanka, as in most emerging economies, we have a bank dominated financial system. Therefore, ensuring banking soundness will inevitably lead to financial system soundness. The recent initiatives taken in this regard are significant – we have enhanced capital requirements to reflect the increased leverage in the industry. Even regulatory capital is at a comfortable margin above the international norm but is still only 10% of risk assets which is the absolute minimum should these risks materialize. Therefore, increasing the minimum capital requirements would provide a healthy platform for growth and expansion of banking business. However, capital is the last line of defence. The more immediate needs are good corporate governance and good risk management which will steer the banking system towards good financial health. A sound corporate governance regime would seek to promote the highest standards of professional behaviour and integrity.

May be, one of the reasons as to why we remain under-developed while developed countries progress faster, may be because of our shortage of human capital, with specific and adequate financial insights and awareness. If this situation is to be rectified, we need to develop well financially-educated people to operate financial institutions. We need well trained people to regulate these institutions. We need the investors to master the art of investment. All in all, we need our future generations to acquire sufficient financial knowledge. At the same time, I hope the knowledge that would be disseminated by this newly formed FSA would, also be valuable to change the attitudes of our financial journalists as well. In that regard, I hope that some of these courses may provide opportunities for our journalists too, to better understand financial service related subjects so that they will be able to provide a more meaningful interpretation of such matters. That too would, hopefully, enhance the general public’s understanding of financial operations and I look forward to such an outcome as well. As we all know there is today a vast majority of people who lack the knowledge to take advantage of the enormous opportunities that may be actually right in front of them. I think we have now taken the initiative to rectify that situation.
Bandid Nijathaworn: Where is global finance heading? Speech by Dr Bandid Nijathaworn, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Thailand, at the Conference entitled, “Where is Global Finance Heading? The Stake of Emerging Economies in the International Financial System”, organised by Central Bank of Peru and Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee, Cusco, Peru, July 13-14, 2009. *  *  *  Thank you Chair First, let me thank the Central Bank of Peru and Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee for the invitation. It is an honour to be speaking to you today. The topic of this first session is “Time of upheaval: Where global finance is heading?”. This is definitely an important question given the current crisis is now almost two years old and is still evolving. Judging from the implications that the crisis has had so far on the world economy and financial markets, this is truly the first crisis of globalization. The crisis shows that financial upheaval can happen in any country, regardless of whether it is large or small, emerging or developed, and once happens, it can impart huge externalities on the rest of the world given the globalized nature of the world’s trade and payment systems. But more importantly, the crisis points to the weakness in the configuration of policies and financial regulation in the period leading up to the crisis that led to excessive risk-taking in the intermediation of global savings and investment across economies.

Risks related to the corporate debt burden are under control. The Bank of Russia is monitoring financial stability, promptly and regularly adjusts its macroeconomic forecasts and its policy. The central bank is prepared to use all available instruments to stabilise the situation in case of need. However, in order to maintain macroeconomic stability we need not only a balanced policy pursued by the central bank, but also the appropriate fiscal policy, including the government debt management policy. The national debt in national currency is a basic financial instrument for any country of the world. It plays a leading part in the financial markets, is actively used by central banks in their monetary policies, as well as in banking and financial regulation. This is the role of a risk-free liquid asset, as we conditionally call it. The rates on other riskier assets are usually calculated with due account of the risk premium to government debt. As distinct from short-term interest rates regulated by central banks, long-term rates in the economy depend on inflation expectations and expectations with regard to government finance sustainability. The ‘risk-free’ is a key word describing the relationship between the financial system and the government debt. The latter may perform all these functions only if the state budget is balanced in the medium and long terms and the government may honour its obligations without resorting to defaults and the printing press. Budget discipline impacts the central bank’s ability to function as an economic and financial stabiliser amid economic shocks.
A third reason is that it is important for the Bank’s future forecasting work to understand why our forecasts sometimes are inaccurate. The low inflation rate has helped fuel the monetary policy debate in the past year. On the one hand, we have been criticised for not sticking to our normal policy rule and that monetary policy, given this rule, is not expansionary enough. On the other hand, it has been claimed that the expansion in household credit has been too fast and that the risk of a house price bubble should prompt us to raise the repo rate. One variation on the latter theme has been more general criticism that the Riksbank has its hands tied as a result of its own inflation target and that its policy is rigid. The essence of this seems to be that we have adopted an overly slavish approach in trying to meet the inflation target. So the question of how best to conduct monetary policy is not easy. As a result we always welcome a serious, challenging discussion. I intend today to try to answer the question of why inflation is so low, after which I will tie this in with recent developments and the current monetary policy situation. But before I do so, I would like to touch upon the fundamental issue of how we conduct monetary policy. A framework for monetary policy The objective of Swedish monetary policy is explicitly set out in the Sveriges Riksbank Act: it is to maintain price stability.

We have also underscored time and again that the rule only helps us part of the way. There may be reason to depart from it. The Riksbank’s clarification of monetary policy in 1999 explains when this may be the case. One reason is the occurrence of a shock that has caused inflation to deviate considerably from target. In such cases there may be a risk of undesirable fluctuations in the real economy if we were to try to bring inflation back to target within the normal time horizon. We have to be able to make allowances for such circumstances; otherwise they could have serious repercussions for the real economy. And our monetary policy framework provides scope for this. But no two situations are ever exactly the same. It is necessary to have a thorough analysis on which to base our standpoints and an explanation for our decisions. Another reason to deviate from the policy rule is if inflation is judged to be influenced by temporary effects, i.e. effects that will diminish without any monetary policy intervention. That, for example, is why we often focus our discussion on UND1X, the measure of underlying inflation that excludes the effects of indirect taxes and subsidies as well as interest rate changes. But it can also be a case of temporary supply shocks that are not expected to persist, such as the sharp rise in electricity prices at the turn of the year 2002/2003.
Sebastián Edwards analyzes the relationship between inflation targeting and exchange rates in three areas: the exchange rate’s effectiveness as a shock absorber, the exchange rate’s volatility and the role of parities in the conduct of monetary policy. Stephen Cecchetti and Stefan Krause examine the optimality and the practice of weighting inflation rate targets and price level targets, providing evidence from countries with and without inflation targets. Frederic Mishkin and Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel present evidence on the macroeconomic and monetary policy effects in all inflation targeting countries, and compare them with earlier times and with non-inflation-targeting developed economies. Refet Gürkaynak, Andrew Levin and Eric Swanson present evidence for Canada and Chile, on the contribution of inflation targets to the anchoring of long-term inflation expectations, in comparison with a country that has no explicit target, the United States. The Conference’s fifth and last session will analyze the relationship between the optimal monetary policy and inflation targeting. Athanasios Orphanides and John Williams, using a model estimated for the US, show how under conditions of imperfect information the optimal policy rules are modified and how a monetary scheme based on the key elements of an inflation targeting regime seems to contribute to a higher macroeconomic equilibrium. Carl Walsh analyzes the relationship between inflation targeting and transparency, showing how the quality of central bank projections and their public communication can affect the outcome of monetary policy.

It is of the utmost importance that the entire euro area and Europe as a whole maintain and consolidate their cost competitiveness position. Since the introduction of the single currency, it is more important than ever that we closely monitor the production cost indicator, as it determines to a large extent the competitiveness of goods and services produced in our economy and, therefore, the current level of employment. It also acts as a “leading indicator” of future employment because it gives a measure of the attractiveness of an inward investment compared with investment outside the euro area or outside Europe. Embarking in bold structural reforms: In this context, we also need to pursue and step up bold structural reforms, aimed at increasing the flexibility of the economy as a whole and fostering the progress of science and technologies. This is crucial if we wish to enhance the potential growth of European economies and to continue to promote sustainable growth and enduring job creation. The European Council meeting held in Luxembourg in 1997 explicitly mentioned structural policies among the items selected for reinforced co-ordination. The Lisbon and Stockholm European Councils, held in 2000 and 2001, further enhanced the medium term strategy necessary for structural reforms in the Union. This strategy aims at raising the potential growth and strengthening the competitiveness of the EU economies.
The Bank’s Financial Market Infrastructure report will be issued early in June, and much is happening in that arena with the renewal of payment systems and the impact of technological developments on banks and payment intermediation. Honoured guests: The legacies of the financial crisis have now by and large been dealt with. We are now embarking on a new period of capital account openness. This entails both opportunities and risks. We must seize the opportunities, analyse the risks, and take appropriate action. To the best of its ability, the Central Bank will contribute to this process where appropriate. In closing, I would like to thank the Supervisory Board and the Monetary Policy Committee for their work over the past year, and I wish to thank the Central Bank’s many colleagues and collaborators for their cooperation – not least the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, and the Financial Supervisory Authority. I would also like to thank the financial institutions with which the Bank interacts for their cooperation. Furthermore, I would like to thank the Parliament of Iceland, particularly the Economics and Commerce Committee, for their collaboration. And last but certainly not least, I want to thank the staff of the Central Bank for a job well done over the past year. 8

To date, the number of Islamic financial institutions worldwide has increased to more than 300, spanning more than 75 countries both in the Muslim and non-Muslim countries. 1 The expansion of the inter-linkages among intermediaries and markets across regions would contribute towards a more efficient allocation of financial resources across borders and thus contribute to enhancing global growth prospects. The fifth dimension that has seen significant change is in the development of human capital in Islamic finance. It has been a vital development that has been key in ensuring an adequate supply of talent and expertise for further expansion and development of the Islamic financial services industry. High caliber professionals that have the combined knowledge and understanding of the Shariah with the necessary skills in finance 2 are now in great demand. Recognising this, several major institutions of higher learning are offering more focussed and structured programmes in Islamic finance. The establishment of the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) in Malaysia in 2006 represents a structured investment in human capital development to support the global development of Islamic financial services industry. It is envisioned that INCEIF will act as a professional certification body as well as an education centre for specialised post-graduate programmes in Islamic finance. Distinctive features of Islamic finance While Islamic finance has continued to evolve, the distinct features remain fundamental. Islamic finance is required to operate in accordance with the rules of Shariah from which it derives its unique characteristics.
Euro area real GDP increased by 0.3%, quarter on quarter, in the third quarter of 2016, after recording a similar pace of growth in the second quarter. Incoming data, notably survey results, point to somewhat stronger growth in the last quarter of 2016. Looking ahead, we expect the economic expansion to firm further. The pass-through of our monetary policy measures is supporting domestic demand and facilitating the ongoing deleveraging process. The very favourable financing conditions and improvements in corporate profitability continue to promote the recovery in investment. Moreover, sustained employment gains, which are also benefiting from past structural reforms, provide support for private consumption via increases in households’ real disposable income. At the same time, there are signs of a somewhat stronger global recovery. However, economic growth in the euro area is expected to be dampened by a sluggish pace of implementation of structural reforms and remaining balance sheet adjustments in a number of sectors. The risks surrounding the euro area growth outlook remain tilted to the downside and 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  relate predominantly to global factors. According to Eurostat, euro area annual HICP inflation increased markedly from 0.6% in November 2016 to 1.1% in December. This reflected mainly a strong increase in annual energy inflation, while there are no signs yet of a convincing upward trend in underlying inflation.

Looking ahead, on the basis of current oil futures prices, headline inflation is likely to pick up further in the near term, largely reflecting movements in the annual rate of change of energy prices. However, measures of underlying inflation are expected to rise more gradually over the medium term, supported by our monetary policy measures, the expected economic recovery and the corresponding gradual absorption of slack. Turning to the monetary analysis, broad money (M3) continues to expand at a robust pace, with its annual rate of growth increasing to 4.8% in November 2016, up from 4.4% in October. As in previous months, annual growth in M3 was mainly supported by its most liquid components, with the narrow monetary aggregate M1 expanding at an annual rate of 8.7% in November, up from 8.0% in October. Loan dynamics followed the path of gradual recovery observed since the beginning of 2014. The annual growth rate of loans to non-financial corporations was 2.2% in November 2016, after 2.1% in the previous month. The annual growth rate of loans to households was 1.9% in November, after 1.8% in October. Although developments in bank credit continue to reflect the lagged relationship with the business cycle, credit risk and the ongoing adjustment of financial and nonfinancial sector balance sheets, the monetary policy measures put in place since June 2014 are significantly supporting borrowing conditions for firms and households and thereby credit flows across the euro area.