samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
More fundamentally, the krone is influenced by the difference in activity at home and abroad and how fast the interest rate has to be increased in Norway to keep inflation low and stable. The economic geography of Norway will change over the next 10 to 15 years. The domestic cost level and the real economy crisis abroad will put pressure on jobs and businesses in manufacturing communities. And as mentioned, the most important, perhaps the only, instrument available to the authorities in addressing this challenge is to restrain petroleum revenue spending. Petroleum revenue investment Let me now turn to the Government Pension Fund Global. 2  6  See for example the National Budget for 2010, box 3.1, p. 53. BIS Review 44/2010  It took a generation from the time the first oil field was discovered in the North Sea until the government began to set aside economic rent. The Government Petroleum Fund was established in 1990 and the first transfer to the wealth fund was made in 1996. Each year since that time, as a savings plan, the government has set aside a portion of current income from petroleum activities as deposits in the Fund. Today, the value of the Fund is around NOK 2.6 trillion, or about 115 per cent of 2009 GDP in Norway. New transfers will likely be made to the Fund for perhaps a little more than another decade. The Fund will in that case continue to grow and may reach twice its current size.

Bank Negara Malaysia has so far issued eight financial advisers licences which employ a total of 57 financial advisers’ representatives. I encourage you to follow their footsteps and embark on a new chapter in your professional careers, to make the most of the opportunities that you will have to create a lasting impact in promoting sound financial planning among Malaysians. I trust that the distinguished speakers will share their valuable insights and experiences to provide you better clarity on the opportunities as financial advisers. On that note ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a successful and productive seminar. We look forward to your contribution to the further growth and development of the financial services industry. Thank you. BIS Review 136/2008  3
Various initiatives are also being undertaken at the school and university level, as well as targeted and high-impact financial education programmes catered towards teenagers and adults by AKPK. Key imperatives for businesses and consumers Nevertheless, the goal of attaining financial literacy cannot be achieved solely by the efforts of authorities alone. Consumers, too have an equally important role in shaping the quality and delivery of financial services. Indeed, it is the actions and behaviour of consumers that will be powerful determinants of how financing can be fully utilised. In this regard, I would like to suggest some key imperatives for both businesses and financial consumers. Business owners should ensure that documents and business records are accurate and complete to facilitate the ease of credit assessment. Business competency in important areas such as marketing, finance and inventory management, and e-commerce should also be continuously strengthened. This will reinforce the assessment by banks and other investors on the long-term growth prospects and competitiveness of the particular business, thus facilitating the provision of finance. It is important to emphasise that the banking industry is in the business of lending. Thus, banks will only generate profits if they continue to provide credit. This is a point worth reflecting upon, to avoid misperceptions that banks are intrinsically refusing to lend. If businesses have potential, there should not be any issues in obtaining financing. If any of these issues persist, businesses should seek advice from LINK at Bank Negara Malaysia.

I would therefore like to clarify that under a flexible exchange rate regime, movements in the ringgit exchange rate reflects both external and domestic factors, including the strength of the domestic economy and the flow of foreign capital in the financial market. Our economy remains resilient with a respectable growth performance within the range of 4 – 5%, relative to the performance of regional and emerging market countries. The ringgit depreciation is not a unique and isolated event. It is a global phenomenon. The strong appreciation of the US dollar has led to similar depreciation pressures in all global and regional currencies. This is due to several factors including the uncertainties surrounding monetary policy in the US as well as global economic and political developments. These global developments have affected sentiments in global financial markets that led to capital outflows from emerging markets. The currencies of many countries have underperformed and the ringgit was also not spared. The ringgit was affected given the structure of our economy and financial market that is one of the most open among emerging market countries. Our market was exposed to global financial market uncertainties that led to the reversal of portfolio investments. There were also other specific factors that affected the ringgit. First, some investors had taken advantage amid the market turmoil and uncertainty to gain profit through speculative activities in the offshore ringgit non-deliverable forward (NDF) market.
Ravi Menon: Preparing the workforce for a changing financial industry Welcome remarks by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Institute of Banking and Finance Distinction Evening 2018, Singepore, 4 October 2018. * * * Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Trade and Industry, Members of the IBF Council, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the IBF Distinction Evening 2018. We are delighted to have Mr Chan Chun Sing as our Guest-of-Honour. Minister Chan, as you know, has played a leading role in the labour movement, to help prepare our workers for the future. And now Minister for Trade and Industry, he is leading Singapore’s economic development efforts. He will bring together his insights from these two important roles and share his thoughts later on building a smart workforce that is ready for the economy of tomorrow. The IBF Distinction Evening is probably the only large platform that brings together the entire financial industry – banks, insurers, asset managers, financial advisers. It is an opportune occasion – not only to catch up with colleagues and friends and celebrate our achievements as an industry – but to also reflect on the big drivers of change and key priorities for us as an industry. There is much celebrate. Singapore’s financial centre is doing well. Growth in financial services in H1 this year was 8%, nearly twice as fast as the overall economy.

There is growing anxiety the world over about the impact of globalisation and technology on jobs and livelihoods. The anxiety is not unfounded. If people cannot or do not adapt to meet new competition or integrate new technologies, they will be left behind. The answer is not to hold back globalisation or technology but to: make globalisation and technology work for everyone; use technologies to create new and better jobs; and most important, equip our workers and professionals with the capabilities to secure those jobs. Preparing the financial industry workforce for a future smart financial centre is the raison d’etre of IBF. The work we do together in IBF – involving all of us here in the industry – is critically important. And there is urgency to it. IBF’s mandate has been expanded to help synergise the efforts of unions, financial institutions, and the government around workforce transformation. IBF is now the single point of contact for all matters relating to skills, careers, and jobs in the financial industry. By looking at skills development, career pathways, and job placements in an integrated manner, IBF is in a better position to help finance professionals in a more comprehensive and holistic way. IBF, MAS, the industry, and trade unions have been working together on several fronts to help equip the financial industry workforce for the future. We are systematically assessing current and future skills requirements in various job roles in specific financial activities.
Prices for shares and real estate, which unlike the case today were pledged for bank loans, rose rapidly. When the economic downturn came in 1907 there was a troublesome financial crisis that hit many companies. The setback in 1907 in the economic transformation was not confined to Sweden. The United States experienced similar problems for much the same reason: excessive optimism about what electrification could do in the short run. So there is nothing new about globalisation’s repercussions, which are usually good but sometimes not. The course of events in Sweden in the early twentieth century was influenced by what was happening in other countries, both in the utilisation of the new technology and in generating an exaggerated euphoria around it. Yet it was perhaps just in that phase, around the turn of the nineteenth century, that Sweden laid the foundation for a long period of rapidly growing prosperity and a modernisation of the whole of society. But no two economic downturns or setbacks are the same. What we are now experiencing differs in many respects. The point I want to drive home by drawing parallels with what happened in the early twentieth century is that periods of “growing pains” have occurred before. Even if new technology has a large potential, the optimism it generates can be excessive for a time. That has happened before and it is happening now. But sooner or later, activity picks up again and creates new opportunities.

Even so, most things suggest that equity will continue to be a good vehicle for saving in the long term even if the trend rate of return is not as high as we saw in the 1980s and 1990s or as some foresaw a couple of years ago. References Bradford DeLong, J. and Summers, L., (2001), The ”New Economy”: Background, Questions, and Speculations, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Economic Symposium, August, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Brookes, M. and Zaki, W., (2000), Is the Internet Better than Electricity?, Global Economics Paper, No. 49, Goldman Sachs, July, London. D’Avolio, G., Gildor, E. and Shleifer, A., (2001), Technology, Information, Production and Market Efficiency, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Economic Symposium, August, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Frennberg, P. And Hansson, B., (1992), Swedish stocks, bonds, bills and inflation, Applied Financial Economics, Vol 2, pp79-86. Johansson, Ö., (1967), The gross domestic product of Sweden and its composition 1861-1955, Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm. Jungenfelt, K. G., (1966), Löneandelen och den ekonomiska utvecklingen, IUI, Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala. Schön, L., (2000), En modern svensk ekonomisk historia, SNS förlag, Borås. 6  BIS Review 90/2001  Shiller, R., (2000), Irrational exuberance, Princeton University Press, Chichester, West Sussex. Siegel, J., (1999), Stocks for the Long Run, McGraw Hill, New York. Åberg, Y., (1969), Produktion och produktivitet i Sverige 1861-1965, IUI, Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala. BIS Review 90/2001  7
While this is good from the point of view of fiscal management, it was not conducive to debt market development, in the sense that we did not have a representative yield curve for the Hong Kong dollar. As we all know, a liquid and deep debt market is an important component of a financial centre. The HKMA therefore decided to develop a local debt market through a two-pronged approach, namely to develop a market of high quality Exchange Fund paper, and to build an efficient financial infrastructure. A market for exchange fund paper In order to facilitate the development of a Hong Kong dollar debt market, the HKMA rolled out the Exchange Fund Bills and Notes programme in 1990. This initiative has been very successful in creating a yield curve for Hong Kong dollar. As of today, the yield curve has been extended up to 10 years and serves as a benchmark for debt instruments issued by other entities in the local market. In order to maintain a liquid market for the Exchange Fund paper, the HKMA has also put in place a market-making system under which market makers are obliged to quote two-way prices. Currently, 26 banks in Hong Kong have been appointed as market makers, and tenders of Exchange Fund Bills and Notes of maturities between 3 months and 10 years are held regularly. These arrangements have been effective to help promote the liquidity of the Exchange Fund paper and enhance the credibility of the Hong Kong dollar yield curve.

So today it would probably be useful for me to take a few minutes to share with you on what the HKMA has been doing to develop our bond market, and more importantly, what our market can offer to investors. Development of the bond market in Hong Kong Let me give you a quick overview of the current status of the Hong Kong dollar debt market. At the end of 2005, the value of outstanding Hong Kong dollar debt reached $ billion HK dollars, equivalent to $ billion US dollars, which is over 30 times the size of the market 14 years ago. The size of the HK dollar debt market relative to GDP also increased significantly to 48% in 2005 from 3% in 1991. In 2005, the gross issuance of Hong Kong dollar debt reached $ billion HK dollars, or an equivalent of $ billion US dollars. Everyday, overseas borrowers, financial institutions and corporations participate actively in our market. In Asia, our market has the highest proportion of overseas issues, with the amount outstanding being only second to Japan and Korea. While we have a very well developed debt market today, one should be aware that there was virtually no debt market in Hong Kong before the 90s. Because of cumulative fiscal surplus, the Hong Kong government had not found it necessary to borrow any money in the market at that time.
I should like to stress the importance of international cooperation between authorities in different fields, particularly now that problems in one country tend to spread to other countries more quickly than before. The Riksbank accordingly participates in the work of the Group of Ten, the Bank for International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund and so on. The recurrent crises in financial markets clearly show that work on strengthening systems is a continuous endeavour and that much remains to be done. Banks and other financial institutions have admittedly done a great deal to improve risk management, not least as regards loan portfolios. But the pace of developments in the financial sector is so rapid that neither financial institutions nor authorities can rest on their laurels. It should also be realised that the extensive work in progress on reinforcing the financial system does not mean that in future the system will be completely immune to problems. Moreover, our knowledge of phenomena of this type is limited. It may be asked whether it will ever be possible to predict financial crises. The models with leading indicators that are being tested at present tend to be too blunt. They sound the alarm about things that never happen and are silent about those that actually occur. The authorities must therefore focus on doing everything so that banks and other financial systems have such good systems for risk management that the probability of financial crises is reduced to a minimum.

It is aimed at adopting best practices in this area, and at implementing the recommendations given by specialized assessments of international financial institutions that assist this process. Allow me to state once more that the Bank of Albania is completely committed to provide all the necessary assistance for strengthening the capacities of the Deposit Insurance Agency in Albania, in view of its very important mission. I wish good proceedings to this seminar. 3/3
It has proved difficult to show that attempts at short-run exchange rate stabilisation, using either the repo rate or interventions, have been particularly successful. Neither does experience from other countries with a flexible exchange rate provide all that much support for such a policy. At the same time, increased credibility has made the gradual modification of the Riksbank’s view easier. The Riksbank has accordingly chosen to be comparatively inactive in the currency market. At the same time, an exchange rate that is highly volatile and displays pronounced fluctuations clearly has drawbacks; the uncertainty it generates is liable to spread to other financial markets, besides complicating corporate and personal decisions about investment, production and consumption. In recent years the Riksbank has therefore occasionally chosen to intervene in the foreign exchange market in order to underscore its appraisal of the situation. It need hardly be said that if such interventions had been judged to conflict with the inflation target, they would never have been considered. As long as the Riksbank targets inflation directly, I see no reason to change the current principles for our behaviour in the currency market. But I also want to underscore that the approach to the exchange rate in an inflation targeting strategy is by no means self-evident. Some central banks that target inflation—the Bank of Canada is one example—seem to react to short-run exchange rate fluctuations more frequently, sometimes guided by a monetary index, partly with the aim of stabilising markets and expectations.

As we approach two decades of the SEG, it is timely that we re-establish our bearings to ensure we remain relevant and true to the original mission of contributing to the international dialogue on capital flows to ensure that the concerns and interest of the SEACEN group are adequately protected.1 As most of our economies continue to face wave after wave of large and often volatile capital flows, I am reminded of the remark by Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Massachusetts who famously said: “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf”.2 Just like the surfers who do not have control over the speed and patterns of the waves, policymakers from small open economies do not have much control over the size, speed, and the direction of capital flows that each country faces. Like it or not, capital flow volatility and the risks it entails are a by-product we have to deal with as long as we intend to benefit from free capital mobility. To paraphrase Professor Kabat-Zinn, we can’t stop the flows, but we can learn to manage these flows in the best way possible. Unlike the surfers, however, we policymakers do not have the luxury of repeating a surf when we make a mistake. There is no room for policy missteps as investors can be very unforgiving.
In effect, more prudent and better-managed banks have been denied the market share that would have been theirs if mismanaged big banks had been allowed to go out of business. This strikes me as counter to the very essence of competition that is the hallmark of American capitalism: Prudently managed banks are being victimized by publicly subsidized competition from less-prudent institutions. A student of existentialism is tempted to recall Nietzsche’s lament that, “He who is punished is never he who performed the deed.”12 An acerbic devotee of H.L. Mencken might be given to recite his dictum that while “injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.”13 I do not doubt for a New York minute that the savvy big players who “performed the deed” did so  11  See “Oil and Gas CEO Pay Beats Other Industries,” by Dana Mattioli, Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2011. Also see http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/php/CEOPAY11.html. 12  See Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality, by Friedrich Nietzsche, Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 13  See Prejudices: Third Series, by H.L. Mencken, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1922. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  with confidence they would be protected by the authorities who might find “justice” difficult to impose. In solving the crisis at hand during the Panic, it appears that the most imprudent of lenders and investors were protected from the consequences of their decisions; the sinners were rescued and the virtuous penalized.

The type of regulation to which it should be subject is also uncertain. Irrespective of what the future may hold, banks’ classical role remains fundamental today to economic development. In the absence of deep secondary markets at the European level, where it would be possible to convert long-term funding into liquidity through the market, the banking sector is still the main vehicle through which savers’ wish to have their savings available can be reconciled with the need of those demanding funds to have stable funding over time.1 Naturally, this does not mean that credit growth should always be positive, as we were painfully reminded by the crisis. In this respect, the debt ratios of households and firms in Spain reached excessive levels of 85% and 133% of GDP, respectively, before the crisis broke. Fortunately, since their 2008/2009 peak, debt ratios have moved on a markedly downward trend, converging late last year with the average EU levels of 60% for households and 90% for firms. Bank lending has been decreasing throughout this period of household and corporate deleveraging. Nonetheless, this decrease has recently reversed. Specifically, if we look at 12-month cumulative data, the net flow of financing granted to households turned positive in June 2018, posting a year-on-year growth rate of 0.5% in April 2019. Firms’ net global financing flows have also held at positive levels since October, attaining year-on-year growth of 2.6% in April 2019.