samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Moreover, the allowed holding period of foreign currency deposits was extended from 3 to 6 months. The important lesson here is that we cannot push away globalization. Instead, we must learn to cope with and understand it well enough to reap maximum benefit from such an open environment. At the same time, we must reinforce our own immunity system, for example, by strengthening and broadening the domestic sector and by having good early warning indicators so that large capital fluctuations, should they occur, will not put a strain on the economy and impede our growth process. Appropriate policy mix regarding interest rate, exchange rate, and capital account liberalization thus remains an important challenge for the central bank. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope I have done my part today in sharing with you my assessment of the economy. My key point is that the economy is now doing better in terms of both the growth prospects and macroeconomic stability, and has the potential to continue to do well in the next year as the global economic environment improves. This important turnaround has come about through a combination of hard work, luck, and appropriate supportive policies, not to mention the progress that has been made on economic restructuring and reforms since the crisis. But most important perhaps has been the commitment, the spirit, and the confidence of our private sector that have helped steer the Thai economy through one of her most difficult periods.

London’s position has developed gradually and the statistics rarely separate the group of wholesale financial markets and supporting legal, accounting and other services that make London special from a broader group including retail banking and insurance and business services. But there is some evidence that all three factors are at work. The story seems clearest with the specific factors of production. The cost of commercial property in London, for example, has grown rapidly. According to Jones Lang Lasalle Research, in the City average capital values are over $ per sq.m, above both Paris and New York. And the costs in the West End, the main home of the new hedge fund industry, are almost twice as high. There is no doubt that the success of London’s financial centre is helping to fuel demand for office space from Canary Wharf to Mayfair. And of course it is not just commercial property in London that has been booming. House price inflation in London has outstripped the rest of the UK (Chart 1), and in Kensington and Chelsea average house prices have risen by almost 40% since the start of 2005, compared with 20% for Greater London as a whole. ECA International published a survey comparing average monthly rents for a 70-square metre unfurnished flat in the largest cities and showed London over € 2,100, compared with New York around € 1,750 and Paris below € 1,500.
An operating environment based on prudent risk management rather than aggressive risk taking, gives us regulators comfort that profits are conservatively stated. This is the essence of prudence which underpins safe and sound banking. BIS Review 70/2004  1  In an increasing trend to harmonise prudential frameworks across the globe, in recognition of the fact that banks, wherever they may be domiciled, are exposed to the same risks, it is becoming increasingly difficult to pursue country-specific solutions. We recognize that we too have to be internationally compatible in adopting common standards for regulation and supervision which are spearheaded by the Basel Committee. Global financial reporting practices are not far away and there are efforts underway to establish a common set of internationally accepted financial reporting standards. Differences of opinion between standard setters and regulators need to be reconciled IAS 39 is one such which is being hotly debated. The efforts taken by CRISIL India, together with the SLBA, in this regard are commendable and I would like to see this initiative gather momentum to provide the platform for the improvement of risk management techniques by the banks in Sri Lanka which would, in turn, make them ready, if not in 2007, even later, to meet the challenges of Basel II. The transition to Basel II calls for a fundamental shift from the basic rudiments of risk management to sophisticated risk management techniques. The period of transition and the cost of transition has to be closely examined by the banking industry.

As I see it, expected corporate profits and access to reasonable investment financing are vital for a process of transformation. Wage formation Let us now take a look at a period when wage formation was one factor behind a less successful transformation of the Swedish economy. When the industrialised economies began to recover after World War Two and international competition increased, partly because trade barriers were dismantled, it became increasingly necessary for Swedish firms to adjust their product range. The requirements resembled those that now seem to lie in the not too distant future. For much of that period the level of Swedish wage costs rose rapidly. This meant that corporate profitability was under pressure both from the increased international competition and for rising wage costs. To cope with this pressure, firms tried to cut production costs by means of rationalisation rather than by investing in new products. With diminishing profits, they lacked the new investment stimulus and the rapid renewal of the capital stock that the pressure for change called for. During a period of transformation, rationalisation is not enough; new developments are equally important. At first, most things still went well. The 1960s was a fantastic decade for growth. In time, however, the strategy proved to be defensive and stagnation set in in the 1970s. There are limits to growth through rationalisation. Without renewal, growth normally slows sooner or later. Compared with other countries, the trend rate of growth in Sweden did indeed turn downwards.
Despite some recent easing, tightness in financial conditions still persists and the tightening of business loan lending standards continued – albeit at a slower pace – during the second quarter. We predict that bank lending rates for consumer loans would follow gradually, as the lagged effects of cumulative easing of 950 basis points since November 2008 would start to ease credit conditions towards the last quarter of this year. However, the current unfavorable labor market conditions are expected to restrain the recovery in consumption, and therefore domestic demand conditions would continue to support disinflation. The fiscal discipline is crucial in maintaining low levels of medium and long-term interest rates for the recovery of both consumption and investment. The implementation of a credible fiscal framework would bring down risk premiums further, and hence lead to a permanent fall in longer-term interest rates. This, in turn, would foster investment and labor demand, and thereby support the recovery process, providing the Green Shoots with the breathing room. Therefore, the determined execution of the medium-term program to ensure fiscal discipline and debt sustainability would have an expansionary rather than contractionary impact on economic activity. In sum, while Turkish economy contracted sharply during the recent crisis, its well capitalized and sound financial system is likely to support the economic activity along the recovery. In fact, recent GDP releases suggest that economic activity in Turkey displayed a solid rebound in the second quarter.

Undoubtedly, the monetary policy of the European Central Bank, which has successfully achieved its objective of keeping euro area inflation and price expectations under control, has had a sharply expansionary effect on the Spanish economy. Indeed, lower interest rates have facilitated the growth of corporate and household debt and boosted spending and activity. But this cannot be identified as the sole cause behind our growth, and nor does it suffice to explain our better performance, since other southern European countries have also seen their financial costs substantially cut and yet have not recorded comparable growth. Nor can there be many doubts about the favourable influence that the fiscal policies pursued since 1994 have had on economic agents' confidence. With the help of European funds, these policies have enabled the budget deficit to be reduced to the extent that, in the past two years, we have run a surplus. The beneficial effects of fiscal consolidation have been reinforced by the fact that the gradual elimination of the budget deficit has occurred without hardly increasing public spending relative to GDP. Among the causes of the boom, we should also acknowledge the currency devaluations in the early 90s. These took place as a result of the turbulence then prevailing and led to a peseta-euro conversion rate that placed us in a very favourable starting position for the competitiveness of the Spanish economy.
1  Such liquidity may be secured against a wide range of collateral, building on the collateral eligible in Sterling 2  Monetary Framework operations. The Bank’s objective would be to provide liquidity in sterling or foreign currency as required, in the necessary scale and for a sufficient period of time to allow the firm to make the transition to market-based funding. The terms would be set in a way designed to support the effectiveness of the resolution regime, incentivise the transition of the firm back to market-based funding, and protect public money. Confidence in the regime for the resolution of international banks is of crucial importance to the UK. We are home to a number of major international banking groups. But equally, if not more important, we are host to a very large number of foreign banks, many of which have sizeable wholesale market operations in the UK. As the leading international financial centre, we import considerable risks from other jurisdictions. It is therefore crucial to financial stability in the UK that we can rely on foreign banks operating in our jurisdiction having viable resolution strategies in line with international standards. Absent such assurance, we would need to ensure the entities operating here have greater resilience locally. Non bank resolution  It was the failure of systemic banks in the crisis that exposed the lack of an effective resolution regime.

And we have established crisis management groups, and, in the EU, resolution colleges, that bring together the regional supervisors for the major cross border banks. These provide the mechanism for agreeing, in advance, the strategy for managing the failure of a major bank with a presence in a number of jurisdictions and for monitoring progress in making that strategy possible. This requires the continued build up, in line with the agreed international standard, of loss absorbing resources that can be used to recapitalise the group in resolution. And hosts’ confidence in the resolution strategy will depend on the contractually enforceable allocation of those resources across the groups major operating entities, again in line with international standards. Recapitalising a bank in resolution by bailing in the private sector restores solvency. But a solvent bank in resolution will still have liquidity needs. Our first preference – and that of the resolved firm – would be for the bank to meet those needs from some combination of its own liquid assets and private funding sources. But we cannot guarantee resolved firms will be in this position, even once they have been restored to solvency and are continuing to meet the requirements for authorisation. Ensuring solvent firms in resolution have access to public sources of liquidity is therefore a critical part of an effective resolution strategy and an area where there is great merit in clarity.
Although it is not easy to reconcile the recent sharp falls in confidence in the US and the relative stability of stock market prices, it would appear that investors generally have taken comfort from the Federal Reserve's ability and willingness to react to the latest data, and take appropriate action. The second cloud on the horizon is the risk to emerging market economies posed by the US slowdown and the unwinding of imbalances in the industrialised world. In some emerging markets, especially those in East Asia exporting high technology products to the United States, the immediate outlook is for weaker economic growth. But for other countries, especially in Latin America, the fall in US interest rates and in the dollar against the euro will mitigate the direct loss of export demand. But the major concern is to avoid another financial crisis, of which there have been too many in the past five years. From Mexico in 1995, through the Asian crisis in 1997 and Brazil in 1999, and, more recently in Argentina and Turkey, sudden reversals of short-term capital flows have created financial crises. In many cases, these crises have proved devastating to the citizens of the countries affected. 2  BIS Review 16/2001  The existence of deep and liquid international capital markets offers opportunities for greater risk diversification by both borrowers and lenders. But it also increases the risk of contagion from one country to another affected by an outflow of short-term debt finance.

As highlighted in a recent statistical study, the growth of the “sharing economy” is creating new opportunities for self-employment: people who work on a shift pattern in a retail store might spend their off-days driving an Uber taxi. This kind of “micro” activity might be less simple to measure than the services of traditional taxi firms, as it may be less likely to show up in earnings data. 4 Measuring investment in a digital economy is equally tricky, as much of it concerns intangible capital. We have now started classifying R&D as investment, which is welcome, but it’s only the most tangible part, i.e. technological innovation, which is typically recorded. Business model innovation is excluded. What’s more, investment in organisational capital and human capital are not recorded in national accounts, even though this will become ever more important part of capital growth as more jobs become automated and skill premia rise. Even more complex is how to measure the value of digital innovations in terms of, say, the time they save for consumers or for national output. How should we value the ability to conduct banking via a smart phone? Or get directions through Google maps? 5 This isn’t just a question of the so-called “consumer surplus”, which is about welfare. It’s a question of whether improvements in quality are being properly valued. And as more and more services are provided in this intangible way, the likelihood of significant mismeasurement of the full value of goods and services in our economies rises.
Joseph Yam, JP: Hong Kong Foreign Exchange and Money Market Practices Committee Opening remarks by Mr Joseph Yam, JP, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, at the inaugural seminar of the reconstructed Hong Kong Foreign Exchange and Money Market Practices Committee, held in Hong Kong on 16 January 2001. *  *  *  Good afternoon Mr Powell, Mr Mathieson, Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, 1. I am delighted to welcome all of you to today’s seminar. This is the inaugural seminar of the reconstructed Hong Kong Foreign Exchange and Money Market Practices Committee (MPC). The organisation of seminars by the MPC will, I hope, provide bankers, treasurers and other market practitioners with an opportunity to focus on issues of common interest. It will help specifically to fulfil at least two of the objectives of the MPC: to promote understanding and expertise relevant to the markets; and to encourage communication among market participants and professional bodies, both local and overseas. 2. The MPC was first established in 1992, as a non-statutory body, with the mandate to give advice on matters relating to the health and development of Hong Kong’s foreign exchange and money markets. Last year was a year of restructuring and recovery for Hong Kong, and the MPC seems to have been following very much the same path. After a review of its functions, the Committee decided to restructure itself, with a view to playing a fuller role in developing and promoting the forex and money markets in Hong Kong.

It has broadened its representation and established three sub-committees, which deal with issues ranging from market practices and product development to training and education. The Committee also expects to adopt a higher profile – for example, through the publication of standard documentation and promotional literature, and by organising seminars of the kind that we are having today. 3. The reconstructed MPC has already begun to show achievements. Some of its contributions may seem a little quaint, such as its work in formulating a set of standard typhoon and rainstorm procedures for settling foreign exchange and money market transactions under extreme weather conditions. But just imagine the chaos and confusion if everyone were to adopt a different methodology for interest calculations and use a different date to settle the trades every time the markets close down because of bad weather. The MPC has also been advising the HKAB on other payment and settlement standards. Again, the advice given may seem insignificant or prosaic, like the creation of a standard format for the settlement code needed by participants in our new US dollar clearing system; but it is often tiny creations like this one that go a long way towards strengthening efficiency in payment and settlement systems. 4. Apart from this “domestic” work, the MPC has also served as a window connecting the local forex and money market industry with the outside world. It has already started to strengthen its ties with overseas foreign exchange committees.
For this broad and interesting work we need a broad set of interesting, and interested, people. So this is where you come in, as talented potential policymakers of the future. Page 10  As I just described, the Bank has a broad remit, to pursue monetary and financial stability acting for the good of the people of the country as a whole. This means we need staff from a diverse range of backgrounds. Those that understand economics to analyse and forecast the economy. Those that understand financial markets to draw insights into their complex interactions and potential to propagate shocks. And those that understand financial institutions to ensure they are resilient and serving the UK economy. All technically strong to do these critically important jobs. We need diversity more broadly too. Indeed the Bank has become much more diverse and inclusive since I first joined, partly evidenced by my own presence as a female leader – one of many now, compared with a very small number when I joined. But we have further to go, and part of our strategy is to increase our physical presence across the UK. That includes here in Leeds – where we currently have a small pilot office, with plans to expand that in coming years reflecting the breadth of skills and backgrounds here. As we pursue monetary and financial stability, we need a wide range of people from a wide range of disciplines from all across the UK to help us do that.

We thus will need to see more data to determine the extent to which the March data represent a transitory weather-related setback. Regardless of the importance of the mild winter in distorting the recent economic data, real economic activity has yet to be strong enough on a sustained basis to make a big dent in the overall amount of slack in the U.S. economy. While growth was stronger in the fourth quarter, most of it was due to inventory accumulation. Growth of final sales remained quite weak. Historically, quarters in which inventory investment makes significant growth contributions are typically followed by quarters in which that growth contribution is modest or even negative. That appears to be what is shaping up for the first quarter of this year. Based on available data, our current expectations are that real GDP will expand at around a 2 ¼ percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2012. Even with the robust increase of light vehicle sales, overall consumer spending in the first quarter appears to be rising at a similar moderate rate. At the same time, real disposable income has been flat over the past three months, and the large increase of gasoline prices is likely further sapping consumers’ real purchasing power. And growth of business investment spending, which softened in the fourth quarter of 2011, may have been even a little softer in the first quarter of this year.
Earlier this year, MAS shared its vision of a Smart Financial Centre: a financial centre where innovation is pervasive and technology is used widely. It is about pursuing innovation and technology to: •  increase efficiency;  •  manage risks better;  •  create new opportunities; and  •  improve people’s lives. We are walking the talk. •  We formed a new FinTech & Innovation Group (or FTIG) within MAS. •  FTIG’s mission is to formulate policies and strategies to create a conducive ecosystem for innovation while fostering safety and security. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  •  MAS has committed $ million over the next five years under the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation scheme. We have been working closely with the industry as well as reaching out to the broader “fintech” community. •  We have been talking to start-ups, software providers, and experts and practitioners in various fields of financial technology, including data analytics, cyber security, blockchains, and digital payments. •  We have learnt much from these interactions. The response from the industry has been encouraging. •  Insurers such as Aon and Metlife as well as banks such as Citibank, Credit Suisse, DBS, HSBC, and UBS have already set up innovation labs in Singapore. •  Aviva has announced plans for a “Digital Garage” and AXA for a “Data Innovation Lab” here.

•  MAS is working with several other banks and insurers on their plans to establish and expand their analytics and innovation teams in Singapore. At the heart of a Smart Financial Centre must be a progressive information technology architecture. Two key characteristics of such an architecture are: •  common standards; and  •  seamless data sharing. Common standards Let me begin with common standards. They are key to making systems interoperable and harnessing fully the benefits of new payments technologies. Lack of standardisation leads to fragmentation, inefficiency, and inconvenience. •  Take for example electronic funds transfer. •  Without a common standard, an application written to effect funds transfer for one group of financial service providers may need to be rewritten to work with another group of financial service providers that operate on different interface standards. Common standards allow systems and applications to operate efficiently and seamlessly when different financial service operators and solution providers come together. •  The EMV chip is one of the most impactful examples of a common standard. It is all the more impressive as it was an industry initiative without any government involvement. •  NFC, or near-field communications, represents the next big thing in common standards. It is enabling contactless payments on mobile devices like smart phones. Yet another good example of a common standard is ISO 20022. This is the international standard for electronic data exchange among financial institutions. •  Its growing adoption has helped to make payments platforms interoperable and reduce inefficiency.