samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
This is evidence that we have not experienced a spike in inflation directly attributable to the euro. A lot of people would tell you that everything went haywire after March... Yes, we have since had an increase in inflation but this is largely attributable to the delayed higher international energy prices and the spike in food and cereal prices. We have been importing inflation, and the way we have administered prices in the energy sector has not helped. We have tried to protect ourselves for too long from market prices, and then when you make changes they tend to be bigger than if you had allowed the gradual movement of prices to take place. To what extent has the introduction of the euro helped to cushion the impact of the financial crisis? Where would we be with the Maltese lira? I was one of those who always expressed the belief that Malta's small open economy in a liberalised global environment and with its own currency was becoming increasingly vulnerable. That is why I was an advocate of EU membership and of early euro adoption. We only need to look at the example of Iceland, which stayed out of the EU, and the financial disaster it is now experiencing. Look at Denmark – an advanced stable country which is also pegged to the euro. Because of this turmoil, the Danish central bank has had to increase interest rates. This is the price of going it alone in times of stress. How much Maltese lira remains in circulation?

News conference  Zurich, 17 December 2020 Andréa M. Maechler  Introductory remarks by Andréa M. Maechler I will touch on two areas in my remarks today: First, I will review developments on the financial markets over the last half-year; here I will comment briefly on our foreign exchange market interventions in 2020. Then I will speak about the imminent changeover from Swiss franc Libor to SARON. Situation on the financial markets  Investor risk sentiment has been extremely volatile since our last news conference in June, mainly due to developments surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. Over the summer months, economic activity and investor sentiment recovered following the relaxation of the containment measures introduced during the first wave of infections. In the autumn, the second wave of infections dampened investor confidence again, especially in Europe. Then, in November, news that coronavirus vaccines might soon become available caused market sentiment to return to a positive footing. In addition, various political risks, such as the Brexit negotiations and the US presidential elections, influenced risk sentiment. Monetary and fiscal policy on both sides of the Atlantic also played an important role in market developments. Having taken extensive measures to stabilise the markets in the wake of the turbulence in March, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB) have since confirmed the expansionary stance of their respective monetary policies. The ECB recently eased its monetary policy further by, among other things, increasing the size of its bond-buying programme.
Nearly half of the world’s population now has Internet access, with over a billion more people coming online in the past five years alone. More and more advances in digitalisation and information technology can improve resource use in industries where productivity growth has so far been low. Retail trade and the financial sector in Norway have already shown that efficiency gains can also be achieved in traditional service industries. With the advent of driverless vehicles, the transport sector could well be the next to undergo a major transformation. A more integrated global econonomy – but an uncertain outlook International trade and cooperation have been drivers of global economic growth. Open borders are particularly important for an economy like Norway. They have given us access to technology and capital and put us in a position to exploit our own strengths in the production of goods and services. Much of the welfare gains we have experienced have come from reaping the benefits of 4/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  economic specialisation. Since the Second World War, the proponents of free trade have had the wind in their sails. Around 1950, international trade accounted for close to 20 percent of world GDP. Today, the share is three times that. This change has been politically willed. Customs duties have been lowered and trade barriers lifted. Technological advances have also enabled more and more goods and services to be traded across countries.

And actually that’s what gives me greatest optimism that we will succeed – because if I had to choose one market to epitomise that hard-edged business instinct, it would be foreign exchange, where ultimately good ideas thrive and objective results speak louder than anything else. So to all of you interested in a career in the FX markets, I say: come and get involved. It’s exciting, important and changing fast. The things that might have put you off in the past are being dismantled – and what’s left is a vibrant and vitally important market where you can really make a difference, both in shaping the future, and in supporting the vital underlying economic activity that relies on it. We need your talent and your skills to help drive change further. I look forward to meeting many of you later, and to hearing from some of the great role models speaking in the later panels. Thank you. 10  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  10
Caleb M Fundanga: Increasing access to financial services in Zambia Remarks by Dr Caleb M Fundanga, Governor of the Bank of Zambia, at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new Stanbic Bank Premises, Lusaka, 10 July 2009. *  *  *  Mr. Ben Kruger, Deputy Group Chief Executive of the Standard Bank Group; Mr. Clive Tasker, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Bank Africa; Ms Pindie Nyando ro, Regional Managing Director; Mrs. Nikki Twomey, Director Brand Marketing at Standard Bank; Chairman of the Stanbic Bank Board, Mr. Larry Kalala; Directors of the Stanbic Bank Board; Managing Director, Stanbic Bank Mr. Joseph Chikolwa; Management and staff of Stanbic Bank; Representative from the Construction Company, Barnett’s and Farmers House Plc; Mr. Roger Miller Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen. I am honoured and thankful for the invitation to officiate at this important Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of the new Stanbic Head Office premises. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen; allow me to begin by commending Stanbic Bank Zambia Limited for the important role it continues to play in the financial sector in Zambia. Since, 1992 when Stanbic Bank was established in Zambia, the bank has grown to be one of the biggest players in the market. As at 31 May 2009, the bank accounted for about 14% of the banking sector’s total assets, while its deposit base accounted for 15% of total sector deposits. More importantly, the bank’s loan portfolio accounted for 15% of the total loans in the sector.

The Bank has also strived to increase its customer base as well as provide convenient banking services by increasing its branches and agencies to 13 and ATM machines to 44 at end June 2009. Chairperson, I have stated at various fora that it is important for banks in Zambia to take initiatives which support growth and development of our economy. I am glad to note that Stanbic Bank Zambia Limited has embarked on this project of constructing a new Head Office at a bigger site and away from the Central Business District or town center. This reflects the bank’s growth and rising demand for convenient facilities. I must congratulate the management of the bank for their relentless efforts to facilitate its journey towards providing efficient and convenient banking services to a fast growing market. I must however, warn that the journey entails more challenges and responsibilities including the challenges of adoption of new technology and the responsibilities of serving a growing number of customers which must be addressed. I have no doubt you will rise to the occasion and deliver. As you are no doubt aware, congestion and inadequate parking space along Cairo Road has posed serious challenges for all banks whose head quarters are located in the city centre. The decision by Stanbic Zambia Limited to relocate to this very convenient area is a positive development as it will go a long way not only in decongesting Cairo Road but also in making it easier for Stanbic to service its cherished customers.
So your CEOs may need to start making different types of phone calls. The financial sector can also work together on the development of extreme and multidimensional systemic stress scenarios, and assessing the impact of shocks from one firm to another. We are arguably now still in the foothills of this new digital era. Ahead of that, international banks must frontload the implementation of operational resilience policy. Surely a mere sliver of the earnings of the last decade should be more than enough to cover that investment. And boards must make sure they understand the risks from new technology and that operational resilience becomes part of the fabric of their decision making. This means, before entering materially into crypto assets, adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), introducing the cloud; or entering third-party relationships, international banks active in the UK must complete their operational resilience homework. So that they are prepared for this new tide. Towards waters in which safe havens will probably be quite sought after and attractive – so there is an opportunity here for banks and their franchise. Page 7  Climate The two issues I have discussed so far, namely how the new world might threaten firms’ financial and operational resilience, obviously have the potential to crystallise in the very near future. The last issue I will touch on today may appear to some as somewhat longer-term, but it is fast approaching and will change the environment we operate in. That is climate change.

Today investment bank businesses have bifurcated: on the one hand, you have high-volume, low-latency vanilla flow offerings in liquid markets; whilst on the other hand, you have less liquid or more bespoke businesses (in the form of financing and derivatives-based activities). Both are predicated on facilitating client activity but they present very different challenges. Investment banks tend to think of ‘Good volatility’ as the friend of liquid businesses – client flows increase, bid-offer spreads widen, and firms position themselves to deploy capital and reap the benefits. Traditionally this provides a natural risk offset to less liquid businesses during a market correction. On the other hand, the more illiquid, complex and concentrated risk books often lose revenue in periods of volatility (for example, equities autocallables – a business that has experienced growth over the last ten years – tend to suffer losses during periods of stress, and frequently make headlines). But invariably these losses tend to be masked by greater than normal returns from liquid business lines. But what if this dynamic of liquid markets and supernormal profits during a stress, which people have started to regard as the norm, doesn’t play out next time? The last decade has been an era of global financial asset appreciation. Given the changing macroeconomic backdrop, traders, investment managers, and investors will need to be alive to the financial market environment in which they run their business. They should challenge themselves and whether their assumptions have been complacent in hindsight. What if, next time, “Good volatility” turns into “Bad volatility”?
In today's marketplace, there are only a number of Islamic financial instruments that have been developed to cater for this need which for the most part constitutes straight private and government Islamic papers. In a bid to deepen and broaden the Islamic bond market, the government has been regularly issuing Islamic and conventional securities with different maturities, enabling the creation of a benchmark yield curve. This was further enhanced with the introduction of an Auction Calender in the year 2000. In the 2000, Government Investment Issues or GIIs were introduced, followed by Islamic negotiable notes, private debt securities, Treasury Bills and sukuk. Furthermore, following the amendment to the Government Investment Act in year 2005, the Government has started issuing shorter-term Islamic Treasury Bills and longer-term sukuk or Islamic bonds with a maturity of 10 years in order to further diversify the Islamic financial instruments available for investors. Under the Act, the Government is able to issue Islamic instruments under various Shariah principles and for different tenures; short and long term, to  BIS Review 49/2005  1  meet the varying needs of investors. Islamic private debt securities (PDS) too have been fast growing in importance and size, accounting for 50% of the total PDS market in 2004. Despite these developments, there has been an inadequate supply of short-term Islamic instruments thereby providing less flexibility to the institutions in managing their asset and liability profiles.

In this environment, product innovation needs to be escalated accordingly in particular, to respond to the growing need for managing risks to realign the risk-return profile of assets and liabilities for financial institutions and investors in reaction to fast changing economic variables. This is made more pronounced by the fact that increasingly, with the unprecedented economic integration, financial markets across the globe are not immune to financial volatilities. Therefore, it is crucial that market participants have the necessary tools to manage financial risks prudently and this is where derivatives can be applied. Application of derivatives will yield benefits to the general public as spread of risk among economic agents will mitigate risk of financial shocks to the financial markets at the macro level and individual institutions at the micro level. As a result, the financial system becomes more robust, stable and resilient to extreme volatilities in the financial markets. The introduction of derivatives in the Islamic finance with adequate legal, regulatory and corporate governance framework will enhance the development of the functioning of the Islamic financial system. Developing the relevant indicators The pricing mechanism for the Islamic financial instruments has so far been based on the prevailing interest rate framework. There appears to be no real difference in both the conventional and Islamic instrument. In order for the Islamic financial instrument to be efficiently priced, it needs to have its own indicator.
Now, before asking my colleagues to discuss some of these trends in more detail, let me note that my positive overview of the household sector comes with some caveats. First, these aggregate statistics can mask some important variations, and there are some local markets where, as in the prior boom, both house prices and mortgage growth are quite strong. Similarly, there exist substantial differences across households in their financial situation and their ability to improve their balance sheets. Borrowers with little equity, low credit scores and slow income growth face difficulties refinancing into low rate mortgages. As a result, this subset of the population has been less able to deleverage and still faces  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  relatively high debt service costs, which constrains their consumption, investment and saving behavior. So, even within what looks to be a stable overall mortgage market, there are some things that we must continue to monitor. Second, there are other difficult challenges that many households face, particularly with respect to a subject we’ve discussed on previous occasions – student loans. On balance, though, households are in a much better position today than they were in 2008. Now, I’d like to turn things over to our economists, beginning with Andrew Haughwout, who will provide a more detailed discussion of household sector finances. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3

Before moving to the forecast our decision is based on I would like to touch upon the current situation. Russian economic situation The recent months saw considerable changes in the global economy, primarily in the global commodity market, which have a direct impact on the Russian economy. Urals crude price fell by over 40% as against the highest price in June. Some other Russian export commodities have also experienced price decrease. Oil price dynamics have become one of the main reasons of ruble depreciation. Discussions of multiple interconnections between the foreign exchange rate and oil prices have currently become a popular trend which should not be taken literally. There should be understanding that it is not the only factor of exchange rate fluctuations. They are also caused by the situation in the Russian and global economy, domestic and foreign financial markets, and by the expectations of the economic agents. In particular, the ruble exchange rate was affected by the restricted access of Russian companies and banks to external markets raising concerns regarding the upcoming external debt payments. However, the impact of the external factors on the economic situation should not be considered unidirectional. External trade restrictions and ruble exchange rate dynamics have enhanced the competitiveness of Russian exports and boosted import substitution. The recent months see accelerated annual growth rates of industrial production (almost two-fold in September-October as against 1.5% in the first six months of the year) and improved sentiment of manufacturers. Net export contribution to GDP growth increased.
However, this should be seen in the light of the earlier forecasts having been wrong in the other direction; when the Swedish and international economies grew at a very rapid rate, while inflation was low. The surprising upturn in prices during 2001 came to affect policy. Although the Riksbank made the assessment - as early as May 2001 - that the upturn was essentially temporary, there remained concern that it might to a greater degree than anticipated reflect a high level of resource utilisation. When there were signs that inflation expectations were about to rise during 2001, at the same time as the krona weakened, we made the assessment that it was necessary to intervene and raised the repo rate by a quarter of a percentage point. This took place in early July 2001. A couple of months later, after the terrorist attacks in the USA on 11 September, the Riksbank chose to lower its steering interest rate by 0.5 percentage points in the light of the poorer economic prospects. However, no further reductions were made. The reason was that a tentative upturn in economic activity was expected in the future and resource utilisation was assessed as relatively high, despite the slowdown. Compared with other countries, fiscal policy was tangibly expansionary, while a weak exchange rate gave impetus to the Swedish economy. Developments in 2002 During spring 2002 the repo rate was raised by 0.25 percentage points on two occasions.

Liquidity-constrained institutions were forced to sell assets at increasingly distressed prices, which accelerated margin calls for leveraged actors and amplified mark-to-market losses for all holders of the assets, including regulated firms. Here, too, government regulators and supervisors had insufficient data to determine the degree and location of leverage in the financial system. More generally, the crisis revealed that regulators, supervisors, and market participants could not fully measure the extent to which financial institutions and markets were linked. A critical lesson from this crisis is that supervisors and investors need to be able to more quickly evaluate the potential effects, for example, of the possible failure of a specific institution on other large firms through counterparty credit channels; financial markets; payment, clearing, and settlement arrangements; and reliance on common sources of short-term funding. A better system of data collection and aggregation would have manifold benefits, particularly if the data are shared appropriately among financial regulators and with a systemic risk council if one is created. It would enable regulators and a council to assess and compare risks across firms, markets, and products. It would improve risk management by firms themselves by requiring standardized and efficient collection of relevant financial information. It also would enhance the ability of the government to wind down systemically important firms in a prompt and orderly fashion by providing policymakers a clearer view of the potential impacts of different resolution options on the broader financial system.
To that end, I welcome the Government's 2023 Green Finance StrategyOpens in a new window. It includes a huge number of measures, but I was especially pleased to see commitments that will create the required cross-economy infrastructure for financing – including sector investment plans, an industry-led Transition Finance Market Review, and a Net Zero Business and Investment Group to advise government on the needs of the private sector to mobilise capital. Turning aspiration into action The reason I have spent some time on these four areas is not just because a lot has happened. It is because it is important to recognise the progress we have seen. 3/7  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  But have we reached a tipping point where firms' capabilities and understanding of the opportunities and risks from transition are driving strategic decision-making? Well here is the reality check. The shift I had hoped to see in stronger linkages between climate change and strategic decision making across the economy have proved harder to deliver in practice. Why is that? Undoubtedly, those headwinds of the last three years and for which we have no recent precedent have reduced our collective ability to take action. This is undeniably unfortunate – but it is a legitimate rationale. Indeed, against this backdrop we have perhaps seen more progress than might have been expected. But we cannot get away from the fact that regardless of this legitimacy, climate risks continue to build and still need to be addressed.

Beyond these unexpected headwinds, the key challenges have come from foreseeable sources. I am conscious I have adopted a number of lists today – but bear with me for one final one as I set out four key challenges we will need to overcome if we are to turn aspiration into action that advances the transition. And in the spirit of being solutions focused, not just a naysayer, I will also provide views on how to overcome each of the challenges. Challenges to advancing the transition The first challenge is that filling capability gaps in the transition finance infrastructure takes time, so we need to continue to take urgent steps now. Collectively we need to equip the financial sector with forward-looking information from the real economy to allocate capital effectively and mobilise finance at scale. That means the rapid implementation of ISSB standardsOpens in a new window, finalising the Transition Plan Taskforce's frameworkOpens in a new window for transition plans, and the adoption of innovations that reduce greenwashing such as product labels. The Government's 2023 Green Finance StrategyOpens in a new window sets out further detail on the timeline for Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and commits to reflect developments in international standards. It also commits to consult on the requirements for the UK's largest companies to disclose their transition plans. But, the responsibility for driving forward the transition to net zero is not only for governments and the authorities in building the frameworks. As NEDs, it includes all of your firms in using those frameworks.