samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
— qu’il convient de réexaminer pour évaluer et mettre en œuvre les changements stratégiques nécessaires. Les sociétés françaises font preuve d’un intérêt croissant pour le basculement à l’euro, créant des forums de discussion avec la collaboration du ministère des Finances. Des recommandations ont été publiées concernant les comptes, les relations avec les services fiscaux et de sécurité sociale et la  BIS Review 22/1999  6  conversion du capital. Diverses dispositions législatives ont été adoptées par le Parlement, en 1998. er Elles offrent notamment l’option tout euro, à laquelle les entreprises ont accès depuis le 1 janvier 1999. En France, les consommateurs ont été consultés principalement par l’intermédiaire du Conseil national de la consommation. Ces consultations vont se poursuivre tout au long de la période de transition. Parmi les tâches à accomplir, il reste à prendre des mesures pour venir en aide aux catégories les plus vulnérables de la population, notamment les personnes âgées et à mener des campagnes d’information en direction des consommateurs. De nouvelles dispositions seront également nécessaires pour permettre de suivre l’évolution des prix tant au cours de la période de transition qu’après le 1er janvier 2002, les entreprises devant fournir aux consommateurs des renseignements complets et transparents afin que ceux-ci disposent de toute l’information nécessaire. Les pouvoirs publics en France sont également pleinement conscients de la nécessité de faire connaître l’euro aux enfants des écoles, futurs utilisateurs de la monnaie unique.

A cet égard, j’aimerais souligner la performance de la France. La France compte parmi les trois pays qui ont satisfait rigoureusement aux valeurs de référence de tous les critères de Maastricht, notamment celui en matière de dette publique. Notre stabilité des prix et le bas niveau de nos taux d’intérêt à long terme nous ont placés parmi les trois pays, avec l’Allemagne, ayant présenté les meilleurs résultats : conformément au Traité, nos résultats, avec ceux de deux autres économies, ont par conséquent servi de référence à l’évaluation de ceux de l’ensemble des pays. La Banque de France a contribué — directement et indirectement — à ces résultats, en mettant en œuvre une politique monétaire indépendante et crédible. A ce propos, je souhaite mettre en avant un point très important. En édifiant une union monétaire, les pays européens n’ont pas seulement fusionné leurs agrégats économiques, commerciaux, financiers et  BIS Review 22/1999  2  monétaires, faisant de la zone euro un partenaire de premier rang en termes de population (290 millions d’habitants), de taille du PIB, de commerce international ou de masse monétaire : ils ont entrepris de créer une zone solide et stable. En fait, l’Union monétaire n’est pas une simple addition arithmétique de résultats économiques nationaux. Elle a été créée en prenant comme référence les performances réalisées par les pays ayant présenté les meilleurs résultats en termes de stabilité monétaire.
So far this year, it has bought currency for 30 b.kr., as opposed to 21 b.kr. over the same period in 2014. If it maintains that pace, it will buy more currency in 2015 than in 2014. As a result, the reserves exceed the outstanding foreign-denominated loans taken to finance them – by 65 b.kr. as of the end of February. But we mustn’t rest on our laurels; we need sizeable reserves as we prepare to lift the capital controls. I mentioned uncertainty surrounding the estimation of potential FX outflows once the controls are lifted. But one thing is certain: if the failed banks’ estates were given a green light tomorrow and could convert all of their krónur to foreign currency, and the same happened with the offshore overhang, there is no way we could safeguard stability, let alone bolster confidence, except perhaps after a long time has elapsed. The Central Bank of Iceland has designed a model intended to assess the impact of various developments in the balance of payments over a long horizon, including capital account liberalisation measures. When applied to this instance, the model reveals that our entire foreign exchange reserves would be wiped out – and more besides – if they were used to shore up the exchange rate. This would never be done, of course, and therefore the currency would depreciate sharply.

2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  As is clear from the hypothetical question, LIBOR is meant to capture a bank’s cost of unsecured borrowing. This means that the reference rate will reflect not only a risk-free component, but also counterparty credit risk related to the specific borrower. This turns out to be important for two reasons. First, the growing popularity and liquidity of LIBOR indexed contracts led to an expanded use of LIBOR to circumstances in which the credit risk of large banks was not clearly relevant. For example, a speculative position about the future of short-term rates is predominately based on one’s view about the path of short-term interest rates, rather than how bank counterparty risk might change and affect borrowing costs. Despite this shortcoming, LIBOR remained popular because the benefit of its deeper market liquidity was viewed as more important than the added complication that LIBOR included an element of counterparty risk.4 Second, variations in LIBOR submissions across the submitting banks at a point in time for a given maturity should mainly reflect differences in the counterparty credit risk, since the riskfree component is common to all submitters. This is important because it means that variations in submissions may be interpreted as reflecting variations in underlying counterparty risk. This is particularly important when the LIBOR submissions process is transparent and the market is under stress, which was the case during the financial crisis.
However, the establishment of an Euro Area Resolution Fund, funded by ex ante private sector contributions, is an avenue that could be considered. Such a fund could both mitigate the systemic impact of bank failures and help to solve the burden sharing problem, which could allow a swift intervention in a crisis. Naturally, clear, stringent and properly communicated conditions for the use of the fund would be a crucial component of the scheme, outlining that any form of bail-out is to be excluded. On a more fundamental level, moving towards a true euro area regime of supervision and crisis resolution requires a stronger concept of the euro area as a legitimate entity requiring separate treatment. Prior to the crisis, this concept was underdeveloped. Since the crisis, a stronger focus on the euro area has been evident in, for example, the meetings of the European Council in euro area composition and the agreement of the Euro Plus Pact. Ultimately, to give the euro area dimension real impetus requires a permanent political centre of gravity. In my view, institutionalising the European Council in euro area format would go a long way towards creating the specific economic governance concept that the euro area merits. Fifth: involvement of central banks in financial stability Finally, a comprehensive discussion on how to ensure financial stability within the economic governance framework should, of course, also look closer to home and to the proper involvement of central banks.

The Basel Committee has sought to further embed risk proportionality within its framework. One such example is the simplified alternative to the Standardised Approach to Market Risk, or SA-MR in short. This simplified alternative will make it easier for supervisory authorities to implement the market risk rules for less complex banks. For such simplified approaches to be fit-for-purpose, it has to take into account the differing conditions across a broad range of jurisdictions. This is especially so for emerging market economies with less complex banking systems. In this respect, forums such as the Basel’s Regional Consultative Group (RCG) and the Executives’ Meeting of East Asia-Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP) can be important platforms for regional regulators to continue to provide feedback or regional concerns. Where the outcomes from impact studies are less certain, the Basel Committee has been careful not to rush into a particular rule. One example is the treatment of sovereign risk exposures. In this case, the Basel Committee has decided to put out a discussion paper to solicit further views. 8 The Financial Stability Institute (FSI) has also recently published an insightful report on proportionality in banking regulation. The report provides a very useful overview of the proportionality approaches in different jurisdictions. 9 Another example is the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) evaluation of effects of reforms. The initial focus is on infrastructure financing, which will be relevant to Asia given the immense infrastructure demands.
There is a growing tendency towards mortgage payment problems for households with low debt-servicing capacity and creditworthiness. But so far the decline in the housing market has not had major spillover effects on either the wider US economy or the global economy. Developments in international financial markets were marked by unrest during the winter months. Equity prices fell markedly, but are now close to the levels prevailing in February. Short-term interest rates in the US are now expected to remain unchanged in the period to summer, but to fall somewhat during the latter part of autumn. In the euro area, there are prospects that interest rates will stabilise at around 4 per cent. Interest rates are expected to rise gradually in Sweden and to peak in the UK in the course of summer. Buoyant growth in the global economy has contributed to very high prices for oil, gas and other commodities. Oil prices have averaged USD 59 per barrel so far this year, or close to USD 6 lower than the average in 2006. In the past week in particular, oil prices have increased markedly owing to the uncertainty surrounding the situation in the Middle East. Global demand for oil continues to grow, while production growth forecasts in non-OPEC countries have been revised downwards recently. Oil futures prices one to two years ahead are just below USD 70 per barrel. Commodity prices rose sharply in the first six months of 2006 and have since remained at a high level.

Higher wage growth and declining productivity growth are pushing up unit costs. Continued strong competition may prevent this cost increase from feeding fully through to prices. However, it is assumed that competition will curb inflation to a lesser extent in the period ahead and that high capacity utilisation and higher wage growth will gradually push up the rise in prices for domestically produced goods and services. As mentioned, there are probably several reasons why the rise in prices for domestically produced goods and services is picking up somewhat later during this cyclical expansion than the historical relationship between the rise in these prices and capacity utilisation would imply. Moderate wage growth has contributed to low inflation in recent years. The subdued rise in prices for imported, processed intermediate goods has curbed the rise in prices for goods and services. In recent years, competition has increased in many product markets. In many industries, high productivity growth has also had a dampening effect on inflation. Some of these factors may continue to influence inflation in the period ahead, albeit to a lesser extent than earlier. Inflation is projected to near the inflation target of 2.5 per cent as from 2008. At Norges Bank’s Executive Board meeting on 15 March, the key policy rate was raised by 0.25 percentage point to 4.00 per cent.
Indeed, it is worth noting that in 1994,  12  This lack of spare capacity in firms is hard to reconcile with the relatively sharp drop in GDP in the recession and the resilience of employment. However, it is possible that future data revisions may change the profile of GDP during the recession. It is also possible that underlying productivity growth trends were overestimated during the long expansion of the 1990s and 2000s, and that the economy was further above capacity in 2006/7 than was appreciated at the time. 10  BIS Review 158/2010  when the early 90s fiscal consolidation began, the UK economy grew by over 4%, which is still the strongest rate of GDP growth we have seen in any calendar year since the late 1980s. The strength of growth surprised forecasters, who had greatly underestimated the momentum of growth which would be generated by a rebound in private sector demand, a strong world economy and a competitive exchange rate. 13 There is a risk that we are making the same mistake again because of the preoccupation with downside risks following the financial crisis. The second key argument is that higher interest rates should help to exert a brake on abovetarget inflation and keep inflation expectations anchored around the 2% target. There are significant upside risks to the forecast recently published in the Bank’s Inflation Report which could sustain the period of above-target inflation into 2012 and 2013.

This provides the foundation, to allow professionals to deepen knowledge and skills through on-the-job training and professional upgrading courses that focus on commercial issues and execution skills. With the experience and expertise among its members, SIBA is well-positioned to spearhead efforts to develop the pool of investment banking professionals in Singapore. The association's collaboration with SMU in 2002 to introduce an executive course on fixed income markets serves as a good  2/3  foundation for future training initiatives. I understand that SIBA is also working on introducing a corporate finance course. SIBA's collaboration with the SMU, as well as its role in spearheading the FICS (Financial Industry Competency Standards) in corporate finance, will help the industry to develop expertise in this core area. Promoting Singapore as a preferred location for capital raising, exploring and developing new growth areas The third key ingredient in developing our capital markets is effective promotion and innovation. The continued development of Singapore's capital markets will significantly depend on industry practitioners, including SIBA members, taking an active interest in promoting Singapore as a preferred capital-raising location. Industry players like the SGX and our investment banks can undertake more promotional trips, to market the strengths of the Singapore markets. I am therefore delighted to announce that the Singapore Exchange will be launching its Global Depository Receipt programme soon. This innovative new product would provide an alternative means through which foreign companies can access institutional funds from Singapore.
The fan chart for the interest rate serves a different purpose: It illustrates that the interest rate path is not a promise, but a forecast which is uncertain. Moreover, it reflects the central bank’s adjustment of the interest rate as a response to new economic developments, which are subject to uncertainty. Our experience is that market participants and the public understand that our forecast for the policy rate is indeed a forecast and not a promise. Let me now turn to the second ingredient; how Norges Bank responds to new developments (“shocks”). Monetary policy becomes more effective if market participants can react adequately to economic news. In order to convey a broader reaction pattern, Norges Bank indicates how the Bank would react should certain disturbances occur. However, since no central bank follows a specific reaction function mechanically, it would be misleading to present a single reaction function specified mathematically. Judgement is always applied when responding to shocks, and a specific reaction function will give a very simplified representation of the reaction pattern. There is thus a trade-off between misleading precision and uninformative generality. Norges Bank tries to balance this trade-off by applying various approaches to communicating the reaction pattern. First, the Bank presents alternative scenarios in the Monetary Policy Report. Chart 2 illustrates the interest rate response to a positive and negative shock to inflation respectively.

8 However, I would like to say nevertheless that the principles which guide monetary policy in modern central banks, and which I have described here, are so general that they should be able to act as guiding stars for monetary policy reform work anywhere in the world. Essentially it is a question of giving the central bank carefully specified – and realistic – objectives, granting it independence in its endeavours to meet the objectives and ensuring that it carries out its work in a transparent manner and is accountable for its actions. It is my conviction that reforms based on these principles will be beneficial to Vietnam, too. Thank you. 8  It can be noted, for instance, that Camen, U. and H. Genberg, (2005), ”An Inflation Targeting Regime for Vietnam”, paper prepared for the VERCON First Annual Conference, Hanoi, May 24, draw the conclusion that the conditions for introducing ”full fledged inflation targeting” have not yet been fulfilled in Vietnam. BIS Review 52/2006  7
As a result, all of you were forced to re-organize your work practices, automate certain functions and put extra effort to ensure that the output of the Bank would not suffer as a consequence of the lower staff strengths. Although this would have caused problems at the initial stage, I believe that you managed to cope admirably in the face of this challenge. As you are aware, the Central Bank’s focus and functions have evolved over the years in response to changes in the economic environment. In keeping with trends in Central Banking around the world, the objectives of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka were streamlined by amending the Monetary Law Act (MLA) in 2002 which defined the Bank’s core objectives and freed it from the multiple objectives originally assigned to it. Accordingly, the Central Bank now pursues the core objectives of economic and price stability (through appropriate monetary policy) and financial system stability (mainly through its role as a supervisor and regulator of the financial sector). The Central Bank accordingly will, over time, devolve some of its other functions including agency functions to other institutions. However, it still has a major role to play in the interim to build up capabilities of the institutions earmarked to take over the functions performed by the Bank at present. Also, it is expected that there would be a further outsourcing of administrative and ancillary functions of the Central Bank.

The Training Department would have to provide the requisite training to address skill deficiencies on an urgent basis. Training should also be a continuous process of skill development to meet global and technical challenges as well as those emanating within the Sri Lankan economy. In order to create a learning culture, it is necessary for the employees to take the initiative to enhance their knowledge and skills through self-study and also through participating in relevant seminars, workshops etc. In the future the Training Department would provide all assistance and even sponsor such events. The Training Department is also in the process of preparing a more comprehensive training plan for the entire Bank based on training needs information furnished by each Department. I should also mention that I have already advised the Training Department to take steps to ensure greater transparency in the training policy of the Bank. Once duties are delegated and personnel empowered, it is up to the persons entrusted with such duties to take up the responsibilities thrust on them and strive for excellence when performing such duties. A fair and just performance appraisal scheme will be put in place to evaluate the effectiveness of performance. The aim of the performance evaluation scheme, the reward scheme and the promotion scheme would be to ensure that the best and brightest are promoted and rewarded. The management also intends to implement a Bank-wide job rotation scheme in the New Year.
Inflation is under 2% and inflation expectations close to target. What is unique in the present economic situation is that almost all economic indicators point in the right direction; we have high growth on a broad front at the same time as inflation expectations are stably low and central government finances in order. An important factor underlying this favourable situation is that economic policy in recent years has been carried out in a consistent and competent way. Monetary policy with the focus on price stability has played an important role although the favourable development would not have come about without a responsible fiscal policy. While households and wage earners have borne a large share of the burden by income-reducing cuts in central government finances, this seems to have taken place on the basis of a general insight that sacrifices were necessary for the time being. However, unemployment is still high and the frequency of employment low compared with previous successful epochs in Sweden, although there are statistical indications that the situation is improving. Unemployment is falling and approximately 100,000 more are in work than last year. The employment ratio has risen from 72% to 74% of the working-age population. The great challenge for economic policy and for the social partners on the labour market is to continue to act responsibly so that the period of good growth that our country is experiencing is not interrupted prematurely.

Earlier in my speech, I pointed to the imbalances in wage formation that could lead to inflation accelerating if they are handled incorrectly. This would make monetary policy tightening necessary that would risk interrupting growth and structural transformation, because the inflation target is mandatory and will not be given up. The Riksbank has both the instrument and the political mandate to achieve the target of 2%’s inflation. The issue then is not whether the inflation target will be met but the consequences that achieving the inflation target will have for the rate of growth and employment in the medium term. The Riksbank is responsible for achieving the inflation target, but responsibility for the positive development that we can now see in front of us being sustained over a longer period, is shared by everyone in Sweden. 5  BIS Review 126/1999