samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Luis M Linde: International financial integration and fragmentation. Drivers and policy responses Opening remarks by Mr Luis M Linde, Governor of the Bank of Spain, at the Conference on “International financial integration and fragmentation. Drivers and policy responses”, organized by the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee and the Bank of Spain, Madrid, 12 March 2013. *  *  *  Good morning to all. Buenos dias a todos y bienvenidos a Madrid: It is for me a pleasure to welcome you to Banco de España and to this Seminar on international financial integration. I would like to start by thanking Marc Uzan and the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee for their fruitful cooperation in organizing an agenda that is indeed very promising. More than five years into the crisis, it is still hard to grasp the real magnitude of the changes that our financial systems are undergoing. In fact, we are still trying to restore the financial channels to support the growth of internal and external demand. While we perform such, so to say, “fire-fighter task”, it is not easy to take a step back and look at how the contours of our economic and financial landscape are evolving. But we can already distinguish some of the characteristics of the new scenario that is taking shape, and that will be our habitat as central bankers, regulators, financial intermediaries or analysts in the years to come.

In this regard, I am encouraged by the fact that non-bank e-money issuers are 2/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  targeting to increase their product penetration in these unserved segments since the banks are not servicing this particular segment. The QR code could be a catalyst to reach this group. To encourage QR code payment, avoid market fragmentation and broaden financial inclusion, Bank Negara Malaysia has issued an Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (ICTF) for consultation. The ICTF aims to connect both banks and eligible non-bank e-money issuers to ensure reachability of bank accounts and e-money accounts. For the first time in our history, customers of both banks and non-banks will soon be able to transfer funds across the network seamlessly by just referencing the mobile number and IC numbers of the recipients or scanning the QR code of the recipients. In this regard, PayNet, the merged entity of MEPS and MyClear, as the operator of the country’s shared payment infrastructure would provide open and fair access to its clearing system and other shared payment utilities to both banks and eligible non-bank e-money issuers. This would enhance the network multiplier effects and foster better allocation of industry resources, as market players would be able to compete based on value-added services rather than on the basis of infrastructure. In addition, the Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework would level the playing field between banks and non-bank players, by subjecting them to risk management requirements that are proportionate to the nature, scale and complexity of their business activities.
And if technological advances continue at a rapid pace, we must all be ready to update our knowledge. 5 [12]  The effects of digitalisation can also be much greater than the effects of earlier industrial revolutions. Online robots and AI have the potential to replace large sectors of the human workforce. Some analysts think that the whole labour market will change fundamentally, and that this will be fairly soon.13 In such a situation, it will not only be groups of employees with different skills that will be polarized. Here I am not even talking about the most dystopic forecast for the future – of an almost omniscient artificial intelligence with its own agenda that takes over the world. Instead I mean a changeover to where many tasks and jobs are no longer done by people. Such a development will create tension between those who own capital in the form of equity and funds and those who do not. This is because the capital owners will receive the productivity gains generated by the machines. Digitalisation can lead to concentrated product markets. There are other problems with digitalisation for market economies. We see already now social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram dominate their respective markets. Few people use search engines other than Google. These companies are not only dominant in their respective fields; they also determine who may market themselves or express themselves on their platforms. In this way, they govern how other companies reach out to prospective customers.

Rapid developments in technology gradually lead to higher productivity and increase our welfare, but they are also a source of concern for many people. Will my job still exist in the future, or will it be done by a robot or an algorithm? How can my company compete in these days of rapid technological advances? * I would like to thank Erik Frohm for helping prepare this speech, Elizabeth Nilsson for translating and Meredith  Beechey-Österholm, Charlotta Edler, Rebecka Hallerby, Jesper Hansson, Åsa Olli Segendorf, Marianne Sterner and Ulf Söderström for valuable comments. 1 Refers to Statistics Sweden's figures on private individuals’ access to and use of IT. 82% of all Swedes in the age range 16-85 years had access to the internet via a mobile phone in 2018. http://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/sv/ssd/START__LE__LE0108__LE0108D/LE0108T14/?rxid=8f4a0041-1be9-4ed3-b6fb182251a2b5cd 2 https://www.zmescience.com/research/technology/smartphone-power-compared-to-apollo-432/  1 [12]  My speech today will not provide all the answers. Instead, I intend to discuss my thoughts on how digitalisation can affect various parts of the economy and what role it plays for monetary policy. Can the Riksbank attain its target of 2 per cent even in a world of digitalisation? Is it still desirable to aim for this target? My reply to both of these questions is yes, but I will return to that later. Focus on digitalisation – where are we now? What is digitalisation and how does it differ from the concepts of automation and technological advances?
Muhammad Al-Jasser: Saudi Arabia’s economic developments in 2010/11 Speech by His Excellency Dr Muhammad Al-Jasser, Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, on the occasion of presenting the Forty-Seventh Annual Report of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, Riyadh, 12 December 2011. *  *  *  Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, It is of great pleasure that the meeting with you is renewed while you enjoy, thanks to Allah, good health. Our country is continuing, under your wise leadership, the march of development and prosperity in an extraordinary solidarity between leadership and citizens. I am pleased to submit the forty-seventh annual report of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, which deals with economic developments in 2010 and the first quarter of 2011. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, The global economy is still suffering from the weakness caused by the global financial crisis and the resulting problems of sovereign debts of a number of states in the industrialized world. However, our domestic economy, thanks to Allah, has avoided the pitfalls of public and private debt which had strained the economies of many industrialized countries. Therefore, our national economy in 2010 continued its growth for the eleventh year in a row, growing by 4.1 percent, and the non-oil sector by 4.9 percent.

Despite the increasing role of the non-oil sector in the national economy, particularly the role of the private sector, the oil sector is still the main driver of the national economy, where most of the country’s revenues and receipts of the balance of payments are coming  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  from. Therefore, it is necessary to continue to work hard in order to diversify sources of income to ensure the sustainability of economic development in the long run and reduce the risks associated with relying on a single source of income. Third: Reduction of high domestic consumption of oil and gas, as figures indicate an annual average increase in domestic consumption of 7.3 percent over the past five years, which is high by any measure and not commensurate with the rate of growth in population and GDP. There is no doubt that the increase in domestic consumption of oil, in addition to being a drainage of resources that God has bestowed upon us, it limits the quantities available for export in the future. Thus, it is necessary to consider the reasons of the increase in domestic consumption of oil and gas to rationalize their consumption. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques: As we are on the threshold of a new gracious budget, I pray for the Almighty Allah to preserve you as the leader of the march of this blessed and generous country. May Almighty Allah lead your steps to success. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3
Jarle Bergo: Best practice in structuring stabilization and commodity wealth funds Presentation by Mr Jarle Bergo, Deputy Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the European Institute's Sovereign Funds Roundtable, London, 8-9 May 2007. Please note that the text below may differ slightly from the actual presentation. *  *  *  Let me begin by thanking the organizers for this opportunity to share with you some of the most important features of our Government Pension Fund – Global, formerly known as the Government Petroleum Fund. Any discussion on how to invest funds must depart from an understanding of when, and for what purpose, the funds are to be used. That is how we can distinguish between relevant risk and less relevant risk. We need to be aware of the risks of not reaching the objectives of the fund. All funds have an objective, but not all objectives can be translated into precise and clear-cut solutions for how to invest the funds. Many commodity wealth funds belong to this category, where liabilities have to be thought of in a very broad sense. The Norwegian Pension Fund has always been more similar to an endowment than to a stabilization fund, but even more so in later years as the Fund has grown faster than expected and has become very large relative to the Norwegian economy. Today I would like to focus on some of the major structures and principles supporting the Norwegian model.

Brexit was and remains bad news, above all for our British friends. But it brings for us an opportunity. The EU post-Brexit financial system will certainly be less concentrated than it is today and more active on the continent, based on Eurozone abundant savings. And, in this new environment, the Paris financial centre has obvious advantages, building on the very welcome measures announced by the Prime Minister to strengthen Paris’ attractiveness. To name a few, France has the most developed capital market in continental Europe, the largest asset management industry and is the leading private equity investor; French universities are renowned worldwide for the excellence of their finance teaching. Paris has everything it needs to be one of the best financial centres in the euro area: it depends on us, on all of us. You can rest assured that Banque de France and ACPR are strongly committed to fully playing their part in supporting the Paris ecosystem. i  G20 Leaders’ Declaration, Hamburg, 7/8 July 2017. Assets of “Other Financial Intermediaries” (OFIs); sample of 21 individual non-euro area jurisdictions and the euro area aggregate. Source: FSB, Global Shadow Banking Monitoring Report 2016, May 2017. iii See U.S. Department of the Treasury, “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities”, June 2017. ii  3
If a situation arises whereby Norges Bank is not able to return the krone to its initial range without such consequences, the Bank will inform the government authorities that measures other than those available to the Bank are required. This may involve recommendations concerning fiscal measures that make it possible to return the krone exchange rate to its initial range and to stabilise it. In the event of pronounced and prolonged shifts in the economy, fiscal policy and wage determination must contribute to restoring balance in the economy. However, if fundamental and permanent changes have taken place in the framework conditions for the Norwegian economy, it may also be appropriate to change the guidelines for monetary policy. According to the Maastricht treaty, the main objective of the ECB is the maintenance of price stability. The ECB has defined price stability as inflation of 2% or lower. BIS Review 92/2000  4  Inflation in Norway cannot remain higher than inflation in the euro area year after year without any consequences for the exchange rate between the Norwegian krone and the euro. If price and cost inflation remains higher than the rate of increase aimed at by the ECB over a long period, the krone will depreciate against the euro sooner or later. Even if instruments are oriented with a view to stability in the krone exchange rate against the euro, cyclical differences will result in inflation differentials between Norway and euro area countries. Business cycles have been desynchronised over the last 15 years.

In line with its clear mandate, enshrined in the Treaty establishing the European Communities, and for sound economic reasons, the ECB has to decide which monetary policy best serves the maintenance of price stability over the medium term and then act accordingly. At the same time, the Treaty also emphasises the need for sound fiscal policies. This clear separation of responsibilities is both efficient and transparent. Obviously, monetary policy alone cannot solve Europe’s economic problems such as the present intolerably high level of unemployment. Appropriate structural reforms implemented by national governments are of the utmost importance and much progress is required in this broad area. Moderate wage settlements in both the public and private sectors would, of course, contribute to reducing the high level of unemployment in many parts of the euro area. In this context, let me remark that recent wage agreements in some parts of the euro area do not appear to be in line with the need to encourage higher employment. The Eurosystem’s monetary policy strategy With regard to the Eurosystem’s monetary policy strategy, I should like to emphasise that the euro area monetary policy is a single one and therefore indivisible – by definition. Monetary policy decisions must be based on area-wide rather than national considerations and hence on area-wide indicators. Monetary policy has to be transparent so as to stabilise public expectations of future price developments.
High productivity growth contributed to low inflation in 2006 Inflation rose last year, but was nevertheless below the 2 per cent target. CPI inflation rose by an average of 1.4 per cent. Underlying inflation, UND1X, was 1.2 per cent. A comparison with our forecasts shows that inflation was lower in 2006 than we had anticipated in 2004. On the other hand we succeeded in predicting last year’s inflation in the forecasts we made in 2005. One reason why inflation has been low in recent years is that prices of imported goods have developed weakly. This is probably linked to stiff international price competitive pressure. Another important reason is that productivity has risen faster than the Riksbank and other forecasters had expected. The unexpectedly high productivity growth has meant that companies have been able to increase production at a rapid rate without costs per unit produced rising to any great extent. Understanding which mechanisms and changes in the economy that lie behind the strong productivity has been, and is, an important task for the Riksbank. Other forecasters have also assumed that companies’ production conditions should have been affected by the various structural changes we have seen acting in the economy over many years now. I am thinking here of phenomena such as globalisation and the rapid development of information technology. Most analysts probably agree that these changes have contributed to increased competitive pressure and that they have enabled production to be made more efficient in several ways.

Their breadth indicates that it is not particularly meaningful to focus on tenths of percentage points in inflation. But the uncertainty bands also show that there is a large probability that inflation will remain within the tolerance interval of 1-3 per cent over the coming years. It is also worth reminding that inflation seen over a longer period of time has not on average deviated significantly from the target. In our current assessment the rate of wage increase is particularly uncertain. On the one hand, the fact that many agreements in the labour market will be renegotiated in a favourable labour market situation entails a risk that wages will increase more than we had assumed in our main scenario. On the other hand, it is also possible that we are underestimating how much the labour supply may increase. This means there is also a downside risk for wages. As before, we cannot ignore that there are risks linked to the rapid increase in house prices and loans. Imbalances could build up. When imbalances sooner or later have to be corrected, this can lead to undesirable fluctuations in inflation and the real economy. At our most recent monetary policy meeting we weighed these risks and considerations against one another. This resulted in the assessment that the repo rate needed to be raised by a further 0.25 percentage points and that it would then need to be raised once more over the coming six months.
Promises about future actions may be seen as not fully credible given the potential for changes in a central bank’s leadership and policy committee and the degree of uncertainty about economic conditions that will prevail far out in the future. 8  In addition to acting to manage inflation expectations, the central bank can also support expectations about the outlook for growth and job creation. This can be implemented by making it clear that, subject to mediumterm price stability, it will seek to stabilize the economy and has the means to do so even at the zero bound. 6  BIS central bankers’ speeches  In recent years, we have developed considerable positive experience providing accommodation through changes in the size and composition of the central bank balance sheet. Taking interest rate risk and mortgage prepayment risk out of private hands has proven to be effective in easing financial conditions, increasing wealth and lowering private sector borrowing costs.9 The impact of purchases may be attenuated to some degree by deleveraging and ongoing adjustments in markets such as real estate. But it is material even in these circumstances, and builds over time as these needed adjustments proceed. The sum is greater than its parts Another important insight is that each of the components of policy – the current stance in terms of the policy rate and the balance sheet, expectations about the future stance, the degree of commitment to future policy, and the clarity of communications – all interact.

Immediately upon reaching the zero bound, we provided additional stimulus by expanding our balance sheet and deploying forward guidance on the policy rate. These actions, in the context of a strong commitment to both our inflation and employment mandates, succeeded in preventing deflation expectations from taking hold, even though real outcomes were disappointing. We also took steps to formalize our 2 percent inflation objective.7 The Fed’s large-scale asset purchase programs differed from those originally undertaken in Japan both in theory and in practice. They were concentrated in longer-term securities – Treasuries and agency mortgage-backed securities. This reflected a different perspective on how purchases affect financial conditions and the economy, as well as the different structure of our financial system. Our view is that asset purchases work primarily through the asset side of the balance sheet by transferring duration risk from the private sector to the central bank’s balance sheet. This pushes down risk premia, and prompts private sector investors to move into riskier assets. As a result, financial market conditions ease, supporting wealth and aggregate demand. The fact that such purchases increase the amount of reserves in the banking system and the size of the monetary base is a byproduct – not the goal – of these actions. The U.S. also moved relatively quickly to recapitalize core financial institutions – partly as a result of good judgment, but also because the intense pressures of a capital markets-based financial system forced us to confront these issues.
The FSB has set in train two courses of action to prevent an excessive concentration of banking risk off the balance sheets of banks: first, it monitors their size, activities and risk characteristics; and second, it is working on the introduction of measures both for institutions (particularly closed-end money market funds) and for activities (particularly certain forms of alternative funding, such as securitisation or the funds obtained through the repo market or securities lending). Lastly, increasing emphasis will be placed on monitoring the implementation of reforms. One of the lessons learned during the crisis was that international standards must not only be appropriate, but also effectively and uniformly implemented across jurisdictions to avoid situations of lack of competitiveness, regulatory arbitrage or creation of systemic risk. I am sure that, as in previous years, your Meeting will be extremely interesting and informative. There is no shortage of issues and problems. Thank you. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5

Since then, we’ve seen more positive readings on China’s economy, in part due to steps the authorities have taken to reignite growth. And financial markets have definitely rebounded from their winter doldrums. Still, we’re not entirely out of the woods regarding risks from a global growth slowdown. Signs of weakness in Japan, South Korea, and some regions of Europe continue, so I am particularly vigilant about monitoring the international data. Trade tensions and ongoing uncertainty regarding Brexit continue to present downside risks. Monetary Policy What does this mean for monetary policy? At last week’s meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to leave the target range for the federal funds rate unchanged, between 2-1/4 and 2-1/2 percent. We also reiterated our patient approach to assessing the need to adjust interest rates in the future. In a nutshell: The economy remains on a path of healthy growth, with a very strong labor market and without the emergence of inflationary pressures. The current setting of policy positions us well to keep it that way. Although my view that we are in the right place in terms of monetary policy has not changed of late, the reasons for it have evolved in line with the economic and financial developments I sketched out earlier in my remarks. The strength of recent data on economic activity, the rebound of growth in China, and the reversal in the tightening of financial markets all imply that near-term risks to growth have receded somewhat.