samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
The programme also included placing dustbins along the pavements and ensuring that the street lights were repaired and lit. It is highly gratifying to see how much work has been accomplished and I am sure that the results are clear for all of us to see today. This initiative, Ladies and Gentlemen, is one sure way of inculcating and promoting a culture of cleanliness amongst our people. It is also an effective way of expressing our Corporate Social Responsibility. Beautiful and clean surroundings also go a long way in complementing Government’s efforts of developing tourism. In fact another dimension of the initiative required that all banks including the BoZ maintain and keep their offices and surroundings clean at all times. In this regard, we at the Bank of Zambia have introduced regular inspections of offices while ensuring that all staff are aware of their responsibilities towards the clean campaign. Furthermore, by keeping their premises or business environment clean, banks provide the satisfaction that customer need. You would all agree with me that a business done in a clean environment leave the customer totally relaxed and in good spirit, prompting another visit in future. Ladies and Gentlemen, in line with “Goal 8” of the Millennium Development Goals on “Environmental Sustainability”, we are all expected to work together and reverse the losses of environmental resources. I am glad to report that the financial sector has taken the bold step and has become one of, if not the first, to contribute positively towards achieving this goal.

In this regard I would like to call upon other corporate entities and business houses in Lusaka and other cities around the country to emulate the efforts of the financial sector and help keep Zambia a beautiful, clean and healthy place to live in. I must hasten to mention here that, by undertaking such initiatives, we are in no way trying to take over the responsibility of the local authorities but merely supplementing their efforts of keeping the country clean and healthy. BIS Review 112/2009  1  Hon Minister, allow me to make an earnest appeal to the local authorities through “His Worship the Mayor” to assist in the maintenance of the islands by providing security to minimize the rampant vandalism, theft and destruction of plants and other essentials that occur on a daily basis. We also make a humble request to the Lusaka City Council to consider working on the water reticulation system, as this is one area posing a great challenge in the maintenance of the islands. Furthermore, there are still a number of places, which require urgent attention in the City. Your Worship, we have observed that a number of incomplete buildings have been abandoned posing a danger to the lives of many while others remain without a colour wash for years giving an unattractive sight to our beloved capital city.
To quote Anne Krueger, this episode is an excellent example of how "efforts to depart from  3/8  multilateralism have provided more vivid illustrations of the need for multilateral solutions to international economic policy issues”.1 Ever since the signing of the Bretton Woods agreements, international cooperation has focused on creating a system governed by generally accepted rules. These have been complemented by mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance and to resolve potential conflicts on the basis of fairness and equity from the perspective of all member states. In this rules-based system, multilateral organisations play a key role, by promoting the transparency and predictability of the system and by seeking to limit free-riding. There is a broad consensus that this system has been key to the development of globalisation and the promotion of economic growth and prosperity for many countries over the past half century. Trade barriers were drastically reduced and trade flows soared. According to the WTO, between 1948 and 1993 the value of world merchandise exports increased from $ billion to more than $ billion; and they jumped to five times that figure after the creation of the WTO. More importantly, in 1948, 63 percent of those exports were traded by Western Europe and the US, by 1993, this percentage had decreased to 58 percent and in 2016 it reached 48 percent, with a major shift in flows towards Emerging Asian countries.

At the same time, financial flows were gradually liberalised and a global financial system emerged, with the active participation of global banks and investment firms. In addition, foreign direct investment inflows have increased tenfold since 1993. The opening up of the current account and the subsequent expansion of trade and financial flows enabled many countries to raise their development status. In this vein, GDP per capita in low and middle income countries doubled in constant terms from 1995 to 2016, while extreme poverty was notably reduced. The Spanish experience since the mid-1980s, when we joined the European Union, constitutes a canonical example of the benefits that the opening up and liberalisation of an economy can bring about in terms of growth and economic modernisation. The need to reform the global governance model However, we should admit that the multilateral system that emerged from Bretton Woods has been sluggish in adapting to a changing world. A world in which emerging economies play a greater role in the global economy than they did in the past. This has undermined some of its legitimacy, causing disaffection among some of its members and impairing the consensus needed for agreements to be reached at international level. The emergence of the global financial crisis in 2008 highlighted the need to rebalance representation on global fora in order for effective concerted action to be achieved.
Particularly over the past two years we have made a number of changes and this has led to some debate. This often happens in times of change, particularly if it requires a learning process – for all those involved – before everything falls into place. And this is also the case with the changes in the Riksbank’s communication. It is therefore quite natural that some questions have arisen: Why has the Riksbank made these changes? Haven’t you made things unnecessarily complicated – tried to “fix something that isn’t broken”? Have you even gone too far in your openness? These are important questions that I shall try to answer here tonight. Giving the right information at the right time and in the right way is particularly important in times of unease. There has recently been unrest in the financial markets around the world. Sweden has not been affected by the market turbulence to the same extent as several other countries. I would nevertheless like to take the opportunity to say a few words about our views on what is happening right now and on the Riksbank's role in this context. But before I do so, I would first like to discuss the changes in our method of communication made over the past two years and the reasons behind them. What are the reasons behind the increased openness and clarity? Many consider that the Riksbank is currently one of the world’s most open central banks.

First, the NPLs ratio dropped from 22% at end-2013 to 6.4% at end-2017, making it the largest adjustment in Europe over a relatively short time period. At the core of this adjustment were conservative requirements for provisioning NPLs, our hands-on supervision approach, and a fiscal facility that was conducive to the development of the secondary market for NPLs. Second, the share of local currency denominated loans in the total stock of loans has increased from one third prior to the crisis to two thirds nowadays. This reduced the contagion risk and improved the transmission mechanism of the monetary policy. A somewhat higher inflation and an earlier start in the policy normalization cycle have to be considered in view of another challenge, which is the lower level of financial intermediation. Some countries are facing the dilemma recently portrayed in a Bruegel Institute paper, between raising inflation and decreasing appetite for risk, the latter being reflected in the lower levels of credit to GDP. The solutions adopted are diverse. While some central banks are embracing a higher inflation, and try to stimulate financial intermediation, others try to reign in inflationary expectations and have already started the tightening cycle. Nevertheless, the issue of financial intermediation remains important, as credit for the corporate sector would need to replace direct fiscal incentives in most of these economies as a driver of growth, if we want growth to remain sustainable. The low financial intermediation in the banking sector comes, first of all, from the demand-side.
The exercise considered minimum capital thresholds which had to be exceeded in each of its parts: the asset quality assessment and the baseline and adverse scenarios of stress tests. Banks not exceeding any of these thresholds had to submit within two weeks a capital plan for remedying their capital shortfall within a period of six to nine months. With the methodology used, 25 of the 130 banks assessed had a capital shortfall, which for the whole of Europe amounted to € billion. It should however be noted that, in anticipation of the exercise, many European credit institutions strengthened their solvency over the past year. Of the aforementioned 25 banks, 12 increased their capital sufficiently in 2014, so only 13 of them, with a capital shortfall of € billion, will have to take additional action to reinforce their solvency. We consider the results of the Spanish banks to be positive. Only one bank was below the threshold in one of the parts of the exercise, specifically in the asset quality review. In this case the estimated shortfall was very small and, during 2014, the bank took measures to strengthen its capital by an amount well in excess of that needed to cover its shortfall. Taking  BIS central bankers’ speeches  5  into account these actions, at present all Spanish banks amply exceed the thresholds set in the exercise.

The GDP deflator would increase by 0.7%, whereby the rise in nominal GDP would be around 2.6% compared with the potentially meagre end-2014 figure of 1%. Overall, these forecasts coincide with those on which analysts concur, although the latter generally involve a somewhat lesser fiscal effort than envisaged in the Draft Budget. The macroeconomic setting accompanying the Draft Budget is subject to downside risks, owing to the uncertainty surrounding international and, in particular, European economic developments. It is against this macroeconomic and financial background that the Draft State and Social Security Budget for 2015 was unveiled in late September. Before continuing, I should point out that, along with the Draft Budget, the Budgetary Plan for 2015 was presented in October. The Banco de España considers that the preparation and publication of this Plan is a most valuable step forward for the control and transparency of our public finances. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  The Budgetary Plan for 2015 includes information on the budgetary planning of the regional and local governments, and it thus offers a view of overall general government conduct. The Budgetary Plan is important because it fills a substantial information gap: the lack of integrated information relating to all general government activity at a time at which a new budgetary cycle is beginning. Given that its publication marks the main change since my appearance in Parliament in October, I shall now focus on its content. Budgetary programming foresees, firstly, fulfilment of the budget deficit target for 2014, at 5.5% of GDP.
Few forecasters predicted the developments in the world economy that have affected the Swedish economy over the last year or so. In this speech I shall begin by explaining why the Riksbank makes forecasts and then go on to describe the forecasting process and how it is connected to the monetary policy decisions. One important question in this context is what stance decision-makers should take with regard to risks that are not captured by quantified forecasts. The best thing is to try to develop tools that can quantify the probability of a particular scenario, and to improve the analysis of what impact this scenario would have on the economy. But this is not always possible and I shall discuss my views on this problem. Forecasts are a central part of inflation-targeting monetary policy The primary argument for a central bank to make forecasts is that monetary policy has an impact with a time lag. The Riksbank conducts a policy of flexible inflation targeting. This means that, in addition to stabilising inflation around the target of 2 per cent, the Riksbank also aims to stabilise resource utilisation around a normal level. The Riksbank varies its steering interest rate, the repo rate, to attain the inflation target. However, the effects of monetary policy on the economy come with a fairly long time lag. This means that prior to each monetary policy decision it is necessary to analyse how different repo rate decisions can be expected to affect inflation and resource utilisation over the coming years.

More broadly speaking, the RMB is now the seventh most used payment currency according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), and the ninth most actively traded currency according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). 4. To me, the extent and pace of the development of offshore RMB business depends on three key factors. The first factor is the relaxation of controls and restrictions by the Mainland authorities. The second factor is the availability of the necessary financial market infrastructure, such as clearing and settlement systems. The third factor is the awareness and willingness of corporates and financial institutions, especially banks, to develop RMB business opportunities. 5. Since the RMB trade settlement pilot scheme was launched back in July 2009, the Mainland authorities have incrementally removed many controls and restrictions on the flow of RMB out of and into the Mainland. Presently all trade and current account  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  transactions between Mainland China and other parts of the world, as well as inward and outward direct investment into and out of China, can be conducted in RMB. Moreover, some cross-border portfolio investment flows, such as investments into China’s bond and equity markets, can also be made in RMB via the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) scheme. 6. More importantly, in April this year the Mainland and Hong Kong authorities announced a milestone project, i.e. the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme.
Yet the words “corrupt”, “self-serving” and “greedy” are hard to square with “trustworthiness”, as are opinion polls putting bankers at risk of relegation from the trust league table. Opinion polls of the public are not an objective truth and talk can sometimes be cheap. But it appears these concerns are not confined to financial outsiders: financial insiders appear to harbour serious doubts about their trustworthiness and culture too. As survey in 2013 of financial professionals found, rather remarkably, that over half believed their competitors engaged in illegal or unethical behaviour. 22 A smaller, but still high, fraction of 24% believed their own company engaged in such practices. Similar percentages believed their industry did not fulfil its fiduciary function of putting clients’ interests first. The significance of these findings is not the precise percentages, as striking as these are. More fundamentally, it is because of what they reveal about finance’s perception of itself, the mirror it holds to the social identity of finance. Psychologists and economists have, over recent years, begun to recognise the importance of social identities in explaining otherwise puzzlingly irrational behaviour. 23 A now-famous study examined the academic performance of Afro-Caribbean boys in US schools, which was systemically weak almost irrespective of ability. A large part of the explanation was found to lie in social identities. Specifically, the social identity of young black boys was defined by doing poorly in class.

): Capital Failure: Rebuilding Trust in Financial Services. PCBS (2013), ‘Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards – Changing Banking for Good’, available at: http://www.parliament.uk/bankingstandards. Putnam, R (1995), ‘Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital’, Journal of Democracy. Putnam, R (2002), ‘Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society’, New York: Oxford University Press. Sapienza, P and Zingales, L (2011), ‘Trust and Finance’, NBER Reporter 2011 Number 2: Research Summary, available at: http://www.nber.org/reporter/2011number2/ paola&luigi.html. Shannon, C (1948), ‘A Mathematical Theory of Communication’, Bell System Technical Journal, 27 (3) 379–423. Stiglitz, J (2015), ‘The Great Divide: Unequal societies and what we can do about them’, New York: Norton & Company. Zingales, L (2015), ‘Does Finance Benefit Society?’, NBER and CEPR Working Papers, available at: http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/luigi.zingales/papers/research/finance.pdf. 22  BIS central bankers’ speeches
Jörg Asmussen: The Irish case from an ECB perspective Speech by Mr Jörg Asmussen, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at the Institute of International and European Affairs, Dublin, 12 April 2012. *  *  *  Dear Mr Halligan, dear Mr. O’Ceallaigh, dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Introduction Coming to Ireland yesterday was a very short journey for me, leaving my office in Frankfurt at 3 pm and arriving in downtown Dublin at 6 pm. On the way from the airport my Counsellor, who is accompanying me today, remarked that Ireland, however, has apparently come a long way compared to the time when she visited Ireland for the first time as a backpacking student almost 20 years ago in the early 1990s. While she recalled that her first impression of travelling from the airport downtown was rather sad, with run down warehouses and poor residential buildings, the picture has completely changed: modern office buildings and residential areas line the streets on the short trip from the airport to downtown nowadays. This is anecdotal evidence, of course, but I think it depicts in a nutshell Ireland’s truly remarkable economic development over the last 20 years. Ireland managed to find a unique selling proposition in the European context and made use of the instruments the European Union offers to foster economic development and growth such as the structural and regional funds in a very smart and sustainable way.

The figure we watch most closely is Core Inflation, which excludes the costs of accommodation and private road transport. We were concerned when Core Inflation came in at 3.1% in the first quarter of this year. This reflected high commodity prices and the pass-through of strong wage growth in 2011. In the second quarter, Core Inflation moderated to 2.7%. It is likely to ease further and approach 2% by the end of the year. This is not far from the historical average of 1.7%. There are several factors driving moderation in Core Inflation during the course of the year. First, oil prices. Global oil prices were at $ per barrel in the first quarter of the year. They are now around $ For the rest of the year, they should remain in the $ range on average, barring deterioration in the geo-political situation in Middle East. The easing of global oil prices is already passing through to prices of domestic oil-related items. Let me give a couple of examples. Electricity tariffs for households came down by 2.5% in July, the first reduction this year. Likewise, petrol pump prices have fallen for three consecutive months, by a cumulative 9% from March. Going into the second half of the year, domestic oil-related prices are expected to keep largely stable. Second, food prices. Global food commodity prices, as measured by the UN FAO Food Price Index, were 5.4% lower in June compared to beginning of the year.
This is a simple point, but quite often overlooked, that is during the meeting, the Chairman should always try to create an atmosphere conducive for independent participation of all Board members. It is also much more effective if the positions of Chairman and CEO are not held by one and the same person. If one individual performs both roles simultaneously, then other Board members cannot fully perform their duties of providing a check-and-balance. This is inevitable in the context of our culture which tries to avoid being disrespectful to others. Moreover, if the CEO acts as Chairman, he can easily influence the agenda and delay bringing certain issues to the attention of the Board. Eighth, on the appointment of an independent director, an independent director should not conduct any business relating to banking operations. By doing so, it may give rise to the problem of conflict of interests. An independent director should be one who is willing to stake out an independent view honestly. However, to expect a suitable individual to have no business background or business connection at all may be somewhat too ambitious. Such requirement will screen out individuals with understanding of banking businesses to assume the duty of bank directors. The requirement about business affiliation is merely a broad and general guideline. All in all, I want to focus on certain qualities which are more imperative to achieving good governance.

Zdeněk Tůma: The role of the EBRD in the transition process towards fully fledged market economies Statement by Mr Zdeněk Tůma, Governor of the Czech National Bank and EBRD Alternate Governor, at the 15th Annual Meeting of the EBRD Board of Governors, London, 22 May 2006. *  *  *  Mr Chairman, Mr President, Governors, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is an honour to address the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in London and I wish to express my appreciation also to the Government of United Kingdom and to the City of London for their hospitality. We are today participating in the fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors and we can look back on these years with considerable satisfaction regarding the role of the EBRD in the transition process towards fully fledged market economies. Many countries - including my country, the Czech Republic – have witnessed significant and considerable political and economic transformation. I am glad to say that the European Bank is one of those successful institutions that have significantly contributed to this process. The Board of Governors has today approved the Bank's strategy for the period 2006 – 2010 – the Capital Resources Review 3. The new strategy reflects the successful transition achieved in the “Advanced Countries” and the Bank's activities are being focussed towards the South-Eastern and Eastern countries of its operations. We support this move. In Central Europe the Bank focuses on just a few sectors today.