samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
But – thankfully for all of us – we live in a democracy, and so a system of independent regulation can only work if the regulators are properly accountable, in particular to Parliament. So much for principles. In practice, where might these lead to for a post-Brexit system of financial regulation in the UK? One possibility is: nowhere! This could arise in several ways, but one comes immediately to mind – a scenario in which our future relationship with the EU takes a form that means we stick with a system which looks exactly like what we have today. There is no reason to be very alarmed by this prospect – it is not ideal but we have largely shaped that system through our membership of the EU and we make it work well currently. However, this would be undesirable if it came with the prospect of becoming a rule-taker in financial services with all the risks – both prudential, and as a matter of industrial policy – that entails. 4  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  4  But let us toy briefly with the idea that the Government and Parliament decide to adopt a style of financial services regulation built on the six principles set out above, or something like them. What, in practice, would this style look like? To step back one pace, you can consider the style of different bits of financial regulation in the UK as being at different points along a spectrum1.

Such initiatives will have to weigh the objective of improved disclosure of pertinent information versus convenience and effectiveness considerations. 31 We are also working to improve the Product Highlights Sheet, or PHS. As background, MAS requires issuers to set out clearly in their offering documents information pertaining to their business, operating environment, financial position and prospects, key risks as well as salient terms of the instruments offered. A full prospectus can run into hundreds of pages. We know many retail investors are likely to find it hard to digest all the information in a prospectus, especially since some of these are written in a technical and legalistic manner. 32 MAS has therefore required issuers to furnish a PHS, which is a summary of the key information presented in a clear and concise manner. It started well. But over the years, we noticed a creep where the form and content of the PHSes put out by issuers have become increasingly technical and legalistic. This picture is a sample PHS that we typically see today. Despite our efforts to encourage issuers to simplify the language and use more visual aids, we have found that most PHSes are still very cluttered and difficult to read. We are reviewing how to improve the way useful information is presented in the PHS. What you see is a prototype of an improved PHS that we are considering. We have incorporated consumer-friendly message design, clear and simple language and the use of effective diagrams and infographics.
There was a lack of confidence that the expansionary trend could continue without generating higher inflation. Inflation expectations moved up--more and more people began to count on rising inflation. All this was manifested in, for example, rising long-term interest rates, a weak exchange rate, rising producer prices and accelerating wage increases. The Riksbank therefore tightened interest rate policy, beginning in August 1994. The restrictive turn was criticised in some quarters because inflation had not yet started to accelerate. But our intention was precisely that. If monetary policy measures are taken in time, the inflationary process can be checked before it has taken off. Once inflation has got going, more pronounced monetary policy measures are needed for a return to low inflation. Vigorous efforts have also been made over these years to tackle the central government financial deficit. With its six-monthly control stations, the convergence programme enables people to keep an eye on the political system’s determination to complete the consolidation of the budget and fulfil the goal of balance in 1998. Government representatives have also expressed an ambition to achieve a surplus after that. With the improvement in central government finance, confidence in economic policy grew appreciably and inflation expectations fell back notably in the autumn of 1995 and during 1996. This in turn is a fundamental prerequisite for lastingly stable growth. During 1996 the Riksbank was in a position to reduce the repo rate by degrees to the lowest level for more than thirty years.

John Gieve: Stability and change Speech by Sir John Gieve, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, to the Engineering Employers’ Federation North West, Warrington, 20 July 2006. *  *  *  I am delighted to be here today. The Bank of England has long connections with this region. We first set up offices in Manchester and Liverpool back in 1820s. That was a time when North West of England was a key hub in an emerging international economy, with the Port of Liverpool providing the gateway for industry in Lancashire and Cheshire to trade with the rest of the world, particularly textiles. The structure of the economy in the North West has of course changed markedly since those days and the region is now more associated with the aerospace, defence and pharmaceuticals industries than with textiles. Here as elsewhere, recent years have been a time of rapid change in the structure of industry and the economy. We may have been talking about globalisation for years but that doesn’t mean it is complete; in fact it is still gathering momentum. Macroeconomic stability: a platform for change In the face of that rate of change, it may seem paradoxical that among central banks the last 10 years have been known as the “Great Stability”. The UK is an example of that. Since 1992, when an explicit target for inflation was first introduced here, inflation has been stable and very close to its target.
Although, Islamic finance institutions are mainly founded in the Middle East and South-east Asia, the interest has extended to Europe and the United States. Today, the size of Islamic banks around the world is estimated to be more than USD 250 billion and expected to grow by about 15 percent annually. Due to the growing importance of the Islamic finance, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) was established in December 1973. The purpose of the Bank is to foster economic development and social progress of Muslim communities individually as well as jointly in accordance with the principles of Islamic Law. The number of members to the Bank is steadily enlarging and currently consists of 56 countries. The primary functions of the IDB are to participate in equity capital and grant loans for productive projects and enterprises besides providing financial assistance to member countries in other form for economic and social development. The Bank is also required to establish and operate special funds for specific purposes including a fund for assistance to Muslim communities in non-member countries, in addition to setting up trust funds. The Bank is authorized to accept deposits and to mobilize financial resources through Shari'ah compatible modes. It is also charged with the responsibility of assisting in the promotion of foreign trade especially in capital goods, among member countries; providing technical assistance to member countries; and extending training facilities for personnel engaged in development activities in Muslim countries to conform to the Islamic Law.

And even though substantial fiscal consolidation would not by itself bring the external imbalance down to a more sustainable level, it would improve the prospect for a smoother adjustment to that outcome. The general risk inherent in these imbalances—the risk of more adverse growth outcomes and asset price volatility—reinforces the importance of sustaining the strength and resilience of the U.S. financial system. Our financial system today is in substantially stronger shape than it was even in the recent past, and the major institutions now appear to be managed so that they are less vulnerable to the type and magnitude of shocks they’ve experienced in the past couple decades. What is important of course is that they are as well positioned to deal with the full range of potential future risks. This requires continued investments in risk management and controls to match the increasing complexity of these challenges, and it requires a cushion of capital and liquidity large enough to capture the potential risk of losses in a less favorable macroeconomic environment. The increase in the flexibility and resilience of the U.S. economy over the past two decades has a lot to do with the increased openness of the U.S. economy. And sustaining this flexibility, which is so important to our capacity to adjust to shocks, requires that we continue to support the process of openness and economic integration. We jeopardize future income gains if we are unable to sustain support in the United States for what has been a relatively open trade policy.
As in all countries, changes in the central bank interest rate are transmitted to the economy with a considerable lag. Monetary policy therefore needs to be forward-looking and the inflation forecast based on the best available methodologies. If the scenario is that inflation will head beyond the Bank’s target, the Bank will raise its interest rates, while it will reduce them if inflation is tending below the target. Let us first look at the macroeconomic forecast, which of course is a major consideration for future inflation. The main assumptions are that the Central Bank’s policy interest rate, currently 5.3%, will remain unchanged for the forecast period, which is a standard forecasting assumption, and that the exchange rate will be 3% weaker than in the February forecast, with a reference value of 124. However the exchange rate index has continued to rise [i.e. the króna weakens] and currently stands at 128. Another assumption is that fiscal policy will not deliver a stronger demand impulse than has already been decided. In other words, the fiscal stance will be relatively neutral, apart from a considerable increase in public sector investment this year and a contraction next year. This implies that the Treasury balance will not be disrupted by discretionary measures on the expenditure and revenue side. Public consumption is expected to be below the historical average.

Participants in the Lloyd’s market know all too well that what appear to be low probability risks can evolve into large and unforeseen costs over a longer timescale. Claims on third-party liability insurance – in classes like public liability, directors’ and officers’ and professional indemnity - could be brought if those who have suffered losses show that insured parties have failed to mitigate risks to the climate; failed to account for the damage they cause to the environment; or failed to comply with regulations. 17  Discussions on correlation are not new. For example, a current issue is the extent to which European windstorms occur in clusters, such as windstorms Daria, Vivian, Wiebke and Herta in 1990 and Lothar, Martin, and Anatol in 1999. 18  See Standard and Poor’s – “Climate Change Could Sting Reinsurers That Underestimate Its Impact” (2014). 19  In 1992 after Hurricanes Andrew and Iniki hit the US, the price of reinsuring weather risks spiked and several carriers left the market, leading to a rise of up to 40% in premiums in some parts of Florida. A series of hurricanes affecting the Bahamas has prompted several insurers to withdraw flood cover for low-lying areas. 6  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Asbestos alone is expected to cost insurers $ on a net ultimate claims basis in the United States – equivalent to almost three Superstorm Sandy-sized loss events.
2007 UK data use the same methodology. (d) US data is based on US GAAP accounting principles. 2007 US data is break-adjusted by Bank of England staff to include assets of several large bank holding companies (BHCs) that became BHCs in 2009, and so were previously excluded from the data. BIS central bankers’ speeches  17  Table 5: General and central government expenditure as % GDP  Australia Austria Belgium Canada  General government expenditure, % of GDP(a)(b) 36 53 53 44  Central government expenditure, % of GDP(a)(b) 26 27 30 17  Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland  44 58 40 56  30 42 30 28  France Germany Greece Hungary  57 48 51 50  24 16 40 33  Iceland Ireland Israel Italy  52 65 45 50  40 58 39 29  Japan Korea Luxembourg Mexico  41 30 44 23  18 20 31 19  Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal  51 45 45 51  31 36 27 39  Slovak Republic Slovenia Spain Sweden  40 49 46 52  23 31 19 30  Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom United States  34 40 50 43  11 29 46 26  Source: OECD Notes: Table shows ratios of nominal government expenditure to nominal GDP for 2010. 18  BIS central bankers’ speeches

Norman T L Chan: Hong Kong’s positioning in the post-QE era Speech by Mr Norman T L Chan, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, at the Hong Kong Economic Summit 2016, Hong Kong, 7 December 2015. *  *  *  Accompanying charts can be found at the end of the speech. Distinguished Guests, 1. When central banks, such as the US Fed, cut short-term policy interest rates to near zero and created money on a massive scale to purchase bonds and other financial assets, we called it quantitative easing (QE). 2. It has been more than six years since the launch of QE in 2009. After spending a total of $ trillion to purchase bonds, the Fed wrapped up its asset purchase programme in October 2014. In 10 days’ time, the Fed will decide whether to lift interest rates. If it does, it will signal the beginning of the normalisation of US interest rates. “QE” Ineffectual? 3. At the end of 2009, I initiated a guessing game with several chief economists from major commercial and investment banks. The question I asked was when they expected the Fed to exit from QE. Most bet on the second quarter of 2010 or earlier. The most dovish of them said Q3 2010. As we all know now, these guesses were wildly off the mark. To be fair, I don’t think anyone expected the US recovery to be so slow and sluggish. 4.
Due to the present economic environment, fiscal policies and structural reforms can and should be more and more part of the policy mix. But it also follows from the guiding principle that I have highlighted today: the more tools available, the easier it is to combine them to minimise the trade-offs between price and financial stabilities. Fiscal policy can help monetary policy in fostering financial stability in several ways. First, it can of course help by taking away some of the burden of policy accommodation. But fiscal policy can also directly assist monetary policy in fostering financial stability. It can help monetary policy to provide the safe assets necessary to a resilient financial system, if possible including in the form of a euro area-wide safe asset. On the tax side, it should reduce all excessive incentives towards real-estate investment, and foster a more neutral allocation of savings according to a sound reward of risk. Let me end with one question: what will monetary policy be like in ten years? We clearly can’t be certain of anything, but we can at least share a conviction: the more progress we have made together on these issues I mentioned, the better our monetary policy will be. Thank you for your attention and your cooperation.

As Bulgarian is not a member of the euro area and the ECB’s decisions have no legal force in the country, the BNB will issue individual administrative acts regarding the significant institutions upon a request by the ECB and in full compliance with it. For the purposes of direct supervision over the banks determined as significant, the BNB has appointed sub-coordinators, and representatives of Joint Supervisory 1/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  Teams who are to take part in all stages of the supervisory process. The Joint Supervisory Teams are responsible for the overall assessment of the risk, stability and vulnerability of each of the significant credit institutions. They also determine the relevant supervisory measures, as needed, including additional capital requirements under Pillar 2 of Basel II. The Joint Supervisory Teams assess the adequacy of the internal ratings of capital and liquidity, and the risks to them, the recovery plans, and the adequacy of the business model and corporate governance of each bank. With regard to prudential supervision related policy issues, the BNB’s representatives participate in other committees and structures assisting the ECB’s work in relation to the tasks conferred to it under Regulation (EU) № 1024/2013. The ECB is responsible for monitoring of less significant institutions and for the general procedures applicable to all credit institutions. Direct supervision over institutions classified as less significant is exercised by the BNB, but with full harmonization of the supervisory process with that of the ECB.
The fund’s global equity holdings doubled in the same period. Petroleum investment has increased substantially in recent years. Investment increased between 2008 and 2009 in spite of postponements and cancellations of a number of projects after the financial crisis unfolded in autumn 2008. This reflects that investment projects in 2009 were to a large extent determined by contracts that were concluded prior to the financial crisis. Petroleum investment still showed a substantial decline through 2009. The volume of petroleum investment is expected to drop further this year and next, followed by a pick-up in 2012 and 2013. The investment decline this year and next reflects postponements of projects and the near completion of large investment projects. Exports have picked up after world trade showed a faster and somewhat stronger increase than expected. Export companies in our regional network report that new orders have increased and that production is expected to rise over the next six months. A further increase in world trade will contribute to underpinning growth in exports. Measured by relative labour costs, Norwegian labour has never been as costly as it is now. As a result, the Norwegian export industry may lose market shares ahead. There are no prospects of another rise in export prices as sharp as in the 2000s, when Norway’s terms of trade improved considerably. Norges Bank raised the key policy rate on two occasions by a total of 0.50 percentage point in the fourth quarter of 2009. The feed-through to bank lending rates has so far been somewhat smaller.

BIS central bankers’ speeches  5  Figure 2 Unemployment and model estimates of equilibrium unemployment10 Per cent of labour force 14  14  Unemployment SVAR  12  12  UC gap UC trend cycle  10  10  8  8  6  6  4  4  2  2  0  0 80  82  84  86  88  90  92  94  96  98  00  02  04  06  08  10  Note: The diagram only shows the so-called point estimate for the SVAR and UC trend cycle models. The uncertainty/error margin associated with these two calculation methods is thus not shown. Source: The Riksbank  So, even though the calculations shown in the figure are based on historical data, the level of equilibrium unemployment cannot afterwards be determined with any degree of certainty. This is because equilibrium unemployment is not observable. Given this uncertainty, it could be asked whether equilibrium unemployment is a stable enough measure to use in the assessment of actual resource utilisation. The fact that estimates of equilibrium unemployment vary heavily over time and depending on the calculation model used provides a good illustration of the risk in having blind faith in the exactness of the estimated unemployment gap. This uncertainty means that deciding which view to take of long-term unemployment is always, ultimately, a matter of judgement.
In fact, it is necessary for the creation of an integrated, deep and liquid European bond market as a central piece of CMU. A single term structure of risk-free interest rates could serve as a euro area pricing benchmark for the valuation of bonds, equities and other assets. The safe asset could also be used as collateral, for example for repo and derivatives transactions across the euro area. 4/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  In principle, several options are available for creating a safe asset. Some options are not politically viable, while others may not be economically sound. I am not referring to the type of eurobonds that would replace national sovereign debt as a joint liability of Member States, as these would require a deep political union. Various proposals have been put forward, but I will concentrate on just two: a variant of the European safe bonds (ESBies) or sovereign bond-backed securities (SBBS)11 and the e-bonds as proposed in the Monti Report.12 The current proposal of the SBBSs refers to a tranched, synthetic bond backed by national sovereign bonds. The senior tranche would have very low risk levels, presumably below German debt, as a result of the diversification gains based on historical correlations and of the protection granted by lower-grade tranches. Market practitioners and rating agencies have been skeptical about the instrument.

Caleb M Fundanga: Investment opportunities in the Zambian real estate business - the role of the Bank of Zambia Paper presented by Dr Caleb M Fundanga, Governor of the Bank of Zambia, to the International Conference on Investment Opportunities in Zambia - Integrating African Property Markets, Lusaka, 15 June 2005. * •  The Chairperson  •  Distinguished Guests  •  Ladies and Gentlemen  *  *  I feel greatly honoured to have been invited to talk to you on the theme, “Investment Opportunities in the Zambian Real Estate Business: The role of the Bank of Zambia.” From the outset I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Business Week for organising such an important Conference. You will agree with me that this Conference is, perhaps, the first of its kind to have been solely organised by the private sector to look specifically at the issue of investment in the Zambian real estate sector. As you may be aware, investment in the real estate sector is critical to the economic well being of any country, since economic growth alone is insufficient if it does not translate into development, as reflected through better living standards that includes provision of quality and adequate infrastructure, such as, real estate. Real estate can be defined to include physical property and bare land owned by an individual or organisation under freehold or non-freehold tenure. However, for purposes of my discussion this afternoon, I will use the term real estate to mean physical property.