samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
A number of elements support this view: •  Our accommodative monetary policy stance – which will remain so for as long as necessary – should contribute to underpinning this recovery;  •  Recent developments in economic sentiment survey data have shown some improvement from their low levels;  •  Looking ahead to later in the year and to 2014, euro area export growth should benefit from a recovery in global demand, while domestic demand should be  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  supported by our accommodative monetary policy stance and by the recent real income gains due to lower oil prices and lower overall inflation. •  Furthermore, the significant improvements in financial markets seen since last summer boost confidence and generate wealth effects and should work their way through to the real economy, as should the progress made in fiscal consolidation. Nevertheless, the Governing Council continues to see downside risks surrounding the economic outlook for the euro area. They include the possibility of weaker-than-expected domestic and global demand and the slow or insufficient implementation of structural reforms in euro area countries. Overall, the June 2013 Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area foresee annual real GDP declining by 0.6% in 2013 and increasing by 1.1% in 2014 thanks to three main drivers: export growth, accommodative monetary policy and low inflation. 2. How can we boost growth further in the euro area? A strong fiscal stimulus obviously appears unfeasible, given the necessity to rebalance public finances.

In this field too, the euro area has made considerable progress over recent years, especially in the countries that had a particularly large competitiveness gap vis-à-vis the rest of the zone and which, as a result, fell deeper into the crisis than their neighbours: •  We have seen a significant improvement in cost competitiveness as measured by unit labour costs (ULC). Between 2008 and 2012, in the three programme countries (Greece, Portugal and Ireland) cumulated ULC growth stood about 12 percentage points below the euro area average. •  The current account balances clearly show a strong correction. In the three programme countries, the current account balances as a percentage of GDP improved by more than 9 percentage points between 2008 and 2012. In Spain, the current account deficit improved by more than 7 percentage points over the same period. Most of the adjustment has been driven by a contraction in domestic demand. However, in Ireland, Spain and Portugal export performance has been very strong compared with the pre-crisis period. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  In total, the euro area generated a trade surplus of more than 1% of its GDP in 2012 compared with around zero in previous years. We expect this surplus to continue growing in the coming years. The speed and depth of the reforms underway in euro area economies is unprecedented.
Muhammad bin Ibrahim: Rethinking microfinance norms Special address by Mr Muhammad bin Ibrahim, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Global Symposium on Microfinance, Kuala Lumpur, 22 May 2017. * * * Thank you for the opportunity to speak today at this Symposium. Bank Negara Malaysia is pleased to host this event together with the World Bank. We are also pleased to have Finance Minister II, Yang Berhormat Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani present with us to address the audience here today. It has been almost six decades since the economist John Kenneth Galbraith observed that few things are more evident in modern social history than the declining interest in inequality as an economic issue. Today, financial and economic inclusion is given priority as a policy agenda, as the global economy confronts an environment of rising income inequality and tepid global growth. According to the World Bank, the distribution of income globally is highly unequal today with a Gini coefficient of 70.7, up from 68.4 in the 1980s. In some countries, income inequality has in fact risen sharply. The challenge of income inequality is even more prominent in Asia. A Working Paper published by the IMF in 2016, highlighted that in Asia, the average Gini coefficient has risen by 4 points from 36 in 1990 to 40 in 2013. Over the same period, the average Gini coefficient for the rest of the world rose by only 2 points.

Given the major challenge ahead, I feel we are very fortunate to have with us today some of the world's leading experts on these issues. Experts are abound in this room, and I hope you foster good network and contact with all these world class players, some are on the podium, and some are sitting among the audience. Ladies and gentlemen, It is a pleasure for me to declare the opening of the " Seminar on Market Risk Management Techniques for the BIS Capital Regime" and I wish you every success in your endeavor to meet these challenges. Thank you. BIS Review 87/2001  3
A third of the interviewees said that they used their cards despite a charge being levied. On the other hand, there was a lot of opposition to the idea of levying a charge in connection with cash purchases or cash withdrawals. A majority of the interviewees said that in this case they would make more payments by card and reduce the number of cash withdrawals. Common to all types of charge is that they arouse strongly negative reactions. It is not up the Riksbank to decide how the retail trade or the banks should distribute the costs for different forms of payment. But there are considerable gains to be made from a pricing model that better reflects the underlying costs – both for society and the companies. Consumers do not realise that they always pay the costs of their payments. Other countries have begun to charge for expensive cards in the retail sector and for the use of cash in the form of charges for ATM withdrawals. This has affected payment patterns. The introduction of a similar system in Sweden would, in all likelihood, also affect the choice of payments made in this country. Secure card payments However, it is not only the cost that is important for payments, but also security. And this is where card payments have a technical disadvantage in relation to cash payments. Security is important to all types of card transaction, not least when private individuals use cards for payments to different types of webshop, which is becoming increasingly common.

Without further delay, may I officially open the Fitch Ratings (Thailand)’s 2011 10th Anniversary Annual Conference and wish everyone a fruitful deliberation. Thank you for your attention. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3
With regard to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which I have the responsibility of leading, I’d observe that the New York Fed, like the other eleven reserve banks, serves to  19  A historical example was the disclosure of Reconstruction Finance Corporation loans to banks in the Great Depression. This disclosure often created runs at the respective banks. See James Butkiewicz, “The Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the Gold Standard, and the Banking Panic of 1933,” Southern Economic Journal, vol. 66, no. 2, October 1999, pg. 271. BIS central bankers’ speeches  7  support the overall mission of the Federal Reserve System. But, by virtue of its location, the New York Fed has a unique responsibility on behalf of the System – namely to serve as the operational arm of the Federal Open Market Committee with respect to the implementation of monetary policy. This separation of the policy arm and the operational arm of monetary policy in two distinct institutions is a very unusual setup among central banks. 20 There are good reasons why these important functions are assigned to the New York Fed. Monetary policy works by affecting financial market conditions in order to promote the economic outcomes consistent with the Fed’s dual mandate. As such, effective and efficient monetary policy execution requires a practical and thorough understanding of the broad range of the financial markets through which monetary policy operates. New York City is the nation’s principal financial center.

This helped knit the country’s commerce together better and ensured that checks would be payable at par rather than discounted by differing amounts depending on how far one was from the bank of issue and how little one knew about a particular bank’s financial condition and viability. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  The view was generally held that centralization of banking would inevitably result in one of two alternatives: either complete governmental control, which meant politics in banking, or control by “Wall Street,” which meant banking in politics. 4 Importantly, the Federal Reserve was designed to have budgetary independence from the federal government. The System funds itself through its business operations, and not through Congressional appropriations. 5 This formed an important foundation in ensuring that the conduct of monetary policy would be independent from political influence. A wide range of research has shown that central banks achieve better outcomes with respect to employment and inflation when they are insulated from short-term political pressures in their conduct of monetary policy. 6 The Federal Reserve System was soon tested, first by the Depression of 1920–21, and then by the Great Depression. The searing experience of the Great Depression, including the 1933 Banking Holiday and thousands of bank failures, revealed significant shortcomings. This led to the Banking Act of 1935, which made two important changes – establishing a federal deposit insurance system and making the Federal Reserve System more centralized.
Convergence went hand in hand with a sizable expansion in output which persists today. Thanks to this, Spanish citizens now undoubtedly appreciate the benefits deriving from macroeconomic stability. But while the economic outlook is currently quite bright, this has not always been the case for the euro area economy as a whole in the period since EMU began. We are all aware that the blame lies not with an unduly tight monetary policy, but rather with adverse cyclical developments and, particularly, with structural rigidities that have cramped growth and employment in some euro countries. With growth subdued, it is more difficult for the public to see how a single monetary policy geared to price stability, contributes to their well-being. Perhaps then, widespread support for the goals of independent central banks will not always be there unless central banks and other authorities insist on the right messages. The Eurosystem has recently launched very successful educational initiatives in this regard. But politicians should also be key players, making clear the role of monetary policy in increasing social welfare. Globalisation Going back to the debate on inflation moderation, I believe that international competition is helping to contain inflation as it guests favourable political economy effects. In particular, market globalisation is strengthening the public’s aversion to inflation. Higher wages and prices immediately erode competitiveness punishing output and employment, and thus people see the damages of inflation more clearly than before.

And third, have structural changes in the world economy, such as the globalisation of capital, production and labour, made the job of central banks easier? I will deal with all three questions today, but particularly with the effects of globalisation. I will focus mainly on labour market aspects, taking the immigration we have seen in Spain in recent years as an example of the positive effects that globalisation can have on inflation. What is behind the recent success of central banks’ in combating inflation? Recent studies have given the credit for reducing the high inflation of the '70s and early '80s to the central banks’ better knowledge of the economy. In my view, these studies have got it right. We have to admit that, at least in some countries, monetary policy didn’t do all it could in the '70s to contain the oil shock-induced inflation of that time. Perhaps at that time, central banks lacked understanding of how supply shocks affect the output gap, as well as of the role of inflation expectations, and how these relate to monetary policy actions. But I don’t think that insufficient knowledge of the economy was the only factor explaining the rise in inflation during those years. Indeed, political will – or rather a lack of political will – could have been even more important. Germany is a good counter-example here, as a recent paper by Stephen Cechetti and others shows.
Tighter limits have been put on certain types of assets – such as mortgage servicing rights and tax-deferred assets – in which the values depend on a firm remaining viable, and that might not be easy to realize in the midst of a financial crisis. On the liquidity regime side, several major initiatives are underway. The Basel Committee has proposed a liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) requirement for globally active banks. In essence, this standard would require that large, internationally active banks hold sufficient short-term, liquid assets so that a bank could fund its operations for at least 30 days, without needing to borrow funds from the central bank. By creating a pool of liquid assets that the bank could sell or allow to mature, the liquidity buffer would buy time for the bank to explore options to restore market confidence. Such steps might include selling businesses and other asset dispositions, raising additional capital, or by making changes in senior management. The LCR requirement is being carefully evaluated to ensure that there will be no deleterious, unintended consequences when it becomes effective. Also, apart from the Basel initiative, supervisors are placing greater emphasis on liquidity. For example, in the United States, supervisors have emphasized the importance of adequate liquidity buffers and many banks have been pushed to bolster their liquidity resources through the supervisory process. Together, this emphasis on a greater quantity and higher quality of capital and larger liquidity buffers should make banks individually, and the banking system as a whole, more resilient to adverse shocks.

The regulations and supervisory practices that are put in place should be determined by what is good for the public good writ large, rather than what benefits some narrow set of private financial institutions or markets. Finally, we need to be persistent. There is much work that still lies ahead. As the crisis recedes in memory, the natural reflex will be to relax and grow complacent. Already, some bankers are arguing that it is time to get back to “business as usual.” We have seen that “business as usual” results in unacceptable outcomes. So we need to keep working on a continual basis to make the global financial system more resilient and robust. We will not be able to avert all future failures or crises, but I know we can do much better in limiting the frequency, severity and the breadth of their impact when they occur if we keep pushing forward. Thank you for your kind attention. I would be happy to take a few questions. 8  BIS central bankers’ speeches
But, we have still not been able to truly cooperate in this field of reserve management, and it is perhaps time for us to take the preliminary steps to move towards such practices in the foreseeable future. It may be controversial. It may pose some new challenges. But, explore, we must. So, I hope you would also start thinking about this new philosophy as well. 2. My dear friends, achieving higher returns, given the current financial turmoil and other factors associated with it, is a challenge faced by many central banks today. The manner in which central banks respond to this challenging task of reserve management has also, had to change rapidly to meet with these new conditions. In fact, it is seen now that central banks have started to gently move away from traditional asset classes like the government Treasury Bills to more sophisticated asset classes. With this development, we now witness changes in the asset portfolios of central banks in the current context, since Central Banks have moved into more dynamic instruments to achieve its return objective within certain acceptable risk parameters. Consequently, gold and Treasury bill holdings traditionally held by central banks are now being challenged by investments like derivative products, securities lending and securitised products, and this trend opens out a new canvas for the reserve managers of central banks. 3. The experience of the financial market turmoil has led to fresh new challenges as well, which are quite formidable.

This situation therefore, suggests that there must be now some innovative rethinking, about this process of reserve management. It should also prompt the reserve managers of the reserve accumulating countries to look beyond their  BIS Review 99/2008  1  traditional methods, and intensely search for new avenues for performance enhancement. 1. The philosophy in reserve management in our region has been historically based upon a very conservative approach which focuses on managing foreign exchange reserves, by limiting investment decisions to very low risk, very low return, highgrade instruments. Perhaps, as a result, there has been no significant cross investments of foreign exchange reserves within the countries in the South Asian Region. Of course, there is evidence of mostly concessional loans or similar types of direct investments, but not in the case of traditional financial investments, issued by our respective countries. It may therefore, be useful for those of us in the South Asian Region, particularly in the context of SAARC, to explore the possibilities of cross investment in financing instruments within our own Region. In that way, we would be able to shift and retain capital in this Region, which can then be applied in the development of our own Region. My dear friends, we speak of regional cooperation in lofty terms. We speak of our historical ties. We speak of our shared destinies. We speak of our common culture.
Deepening economic integration and interdependency Within Asia, economic integration is deepening, and we are becoming more and more interdependent. Intra-Asian trade as a share of the region’s total trade has grown from 34% in 1980 to more than 50% today. Asia is being woven together by trade and investment flows, MNCs spreading their production chains and a growing web of bilateral and multilateral FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) and regional processes. China plays a critical role in quickening the pace of regional integration. China is serving as a production platform for foreign firms. Many manufacture there. Others export intermediate goods to their affiliates in China for assembly and then shipping the finished products to key export markets in the US and Europe. What we are seeing is production sharing and the intensification of an Asian production network. However, both China and other Asian countries also know that due to China’s sheer size and strategic weight, its re-emergence exerts a displacement effect. To use an image, it is like a huge elephant wading into a pond. This will displace the water and reduce the space of others using the pond. What do we do? We cannot live without water. The answer is to enlarge the pond so that there is more space for everybody. China is conscious of its size. It emphasises peaceful development so that while it displaces, it does not threaten. Hence, China is negotiating an FTA with ASEAN so that its growth will translate into more opportunities for ASEAN.

Caleb M Fundanga: Strengthening the Zambian financial services industry through education Speech by Dr Caleb M Fundanga, Governor of the Bank of Zambia, at the Zambia Institute of Banking and Financial Services 8th Graduation Ceremony, Lusaka, 21 February 2009. *  *  *  • The President, Zambia Institute of Banking and Financial Services, Mr. David Chewe; • Distinguished Council members; • The Chairman, Bankers Association of Zambia, Mr Saviour Chibiya; • Chief executives of Banks and Financial institutions present; • Representatives from other Learning institutions; • Distinguished Parents; • Graduates; • Distinguished Invited Guests; • Ladies and gentlemen It is an honour and privilege for me to officiate at this 8th Graduation Ceremony of the Zambia Institute of Banking and financial services. There is nothing more pleasing than witnessing young men and women climbing the ladder of success in life. Mr President, as we speak, our economy is facing numerous challenges emanating from the global financial turmoil. As you are no doubt aware, the crisis has already resulted in a reduction in commodity prices including that of copper our main foreign exchange earner. The Zambian foreign exchange market has also been adversely affected as is reflected in the volatility and weakening of the Kwacha exchange rate in the recent past. The result of all this is lower Government revenues and more expensive imports which would in turn culminate in higher inflation.
As a working assumption, we estimate that it will oscillate around these values throughout the projection horizon. Inflation As I mentioned at the beginning, after being under 2% annually almost the entire second half of 2017, headline inflation has been rising this year, to approach 3% in recent months. Although part of this rise is explained by the more volatile CPI items and the peso depreciation, inflation of the basket components that are more sensitive to the activity gap (ie. services and non-tradables) has increased gradually but steadily over the course of 2018 (Figure 7). In terms of projections, the drastic fall in fuel prices results in a downward revision to CPI inflation this year and next, ending 2018 and 2019 barely below 3%. Towards 2020, once these effects fade out, the CPI inflation will be around 3%. The CPIEFE—total CPI excluding food and energy componentes—inflation, in turn, will approach 3% in the first half of 2019, to later stay in the neighborhood until the end of the projection horizon (Figure 8). Monetary policy About monetary policy, the same as in September, the Board considers that the evolution of macroeconomic conditions makes it necessary to gradually withdraw the current monetary stimulus. Key in this judgment is our assessment of the size of the capacity gaps compared with the magnitude of the monetary stimulus: while the former has decreased, monetary policy is still very expansionary.

Luis M Linde: “The New Hegemon or Last Country Still Standing” Speech by Mr Luis M Linde, Governor of the Bank of Spain, at the Frankfurt Finance Summit 2014, Panel IV: The New Hegemon or Last Country Still Standing, Frankfurt am Main, 20 May 2014. *  *  *  As a result of the crisis, the institutional and intellectual setup of European Monetary Union is being deeply revised. Fresh views on the role of stability across several dimensions – including fiscal and macro-financial – have emerged and taken over the old approach of the Maastricht Treaty. Several players, including, indeed, the ECB, are contributing to this overhaul. I would like to review the main elements of the old institutional setup, the weaknesses revealed by the crisis and the way a reinforced culture of stability is contributing to their repair. The monetary union designed in Maastricht included, in addition to the ECB and the single monetary policy, a relatively loose governance framework for the euro area based, first, on a fiscal discipline device – the Stability and Growth Pact – and, second, on coordination for the remaining economic policies – the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines –. The setup also relied on governments, households and firms being able to internalise the stability patterns required within a monetary union and counted on financial markets penalising those who would not do so.