samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Turning back the Tide Speech given by Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England  FICC Market Standard Board “Two years on from the Fair and Effective Markets Review” Bloomberg, London 29 November 2017  I am grateful to Terry Allen, Alice Carr, Orlando Fernandez Ruiz, Edward Ocampo, Analise Mercieca, Sasha Mills, Louse Oscarius, Chris Salmon and Tim Taylor for their assistance in preparing these remarks. 1  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  It is a pleasure to join the FICC Market Standards Board (FMSB) in reflecting on what’s happened in the two years since the Fair and Effective Markets Review (FEMR). This afternoon I would like to assess recent progress in building real markets for the good of the people and discuss the forward agenda for your important work. Two and a half years ago, FEMR set out a series of ambitious recommendations to restore confidence in 1  Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities (FICC) markets. The FMSB’s work is an integral part of the FEMR solution. Your work matters because UK markets are essential for global commerce. The City has a special responsibility to address the root causes of misconduct given its pre-eminent position in global markets. The UK accounts for 40% of both global FX volumes and trades in OTC interest rate derivatives, and two-thirds of trading in international bonds. More international banking activity is booked in London than anywhere else. 2  Your work matters because the financial sector is an important contributor to UK prosperity.

It is the only way forward to resolve the tension between solidarity and responsibility. Last, on the crucial issue of economic governance for the EA, France and Germany have not always seen eye to eye. In Germany, “economic government” as advocated by Pierre Bérégovoy in the early ‘90s, was originally seen as a threat to ECB independence and is now viewed as a new trick to avoid implementing domestic reforms. To be fair, the French call for Germany to support coordination, and the German doubt about French reforms, have been and are still both well-founded. A weak outcome would be that nothing would happen before the French and German elections of 2017. But even in this case, 2016 can and must be a year of intense preparation. B. Why this remains a necessary debate and why we must make the economic case  We know there is deep political resistance to sharing fiscal resources and sovereignty, as well as Euroscepticism and lack of a sense of national ownership of European matters. The sad example of the refugee crisis illustrates how European countries so far have displayed little solidarity to find a common solution. From a political economy perspective, this can be seen as tension between national preferences and common interest. This is why we need to make the economic case. If we are to promote a stronger governance of the euro area, it cannot be a purely institutional case out of blind belief in ever closer integration.
Indeed, the notable reduction in business activity further to the restrictions associated with the state of alert prompted a much sharper decline in non-financial corporations’ operating revenue than that in the payments they must meet. The latest Central Balance Sheet Data Office figures give an idea of the severity of this shock to firms’ liquidity. There was a strongly adverse impact on these agents’ profits already in Q1, despite the fact that the sharp contractions in activity and operating revenue associated with the declaration of the state of alert only affected the last two weeks of this quarter. The reduction in the return on assets for the overall sample of firms was so significant that it pushed ROA below the cost of borrowing, a development not seen since 2014. The information on bank lending shows firms resorting to this source of financing to cover a large portion of these liquidity requirements. Specifically, the outstanding balance of bank financing granted to Spanish non-financial corporations rose to 8.7% in May after having shrunk by 1.1% year-on-year in February. And the preliminary data for June would suggest that this trajectory has been holding in the most recent period. Yet for financial institutions to have been able to meet such a notable increase in firms’ applications for credit, the contribution of the support measures launched at both the European and national levels has been decisive.

The economic policy response in this second phase of the crisis Naturally, the economic policy response to this crisis should adapt to how the pandemic unfolds healthwise. At this second phase of the crisis, with the characteristics I mentioned, the economic policy response must combine two objectives: to support the recovery - which advises avoiding a premature withdrawal of the support measures that would raise the risk of economic growth undergoing more lasting damage - and to smooth the adjustment of the economy to the post-pandemic scenario. 3  The importance of European support To achieve these objectives, the economic policy response in this second phase of the crisis should have the firmly resolute backing of the European Union (EU). Indeed, given the enormous economic and financial interactions across the area’s various economies, joint action is the most effective means of ensuring that the economic effects of the pandemic will be overcome in a shorter time and at a lower cost to each and every country. This is particularly important in the current situation, where we face a global crisis, but which is exerting asymmetrical economic effects on the different countries. European action is particularly important so as to avoid an uneven exit from the crisis that bears down on overall economic growth for a longer period. These arguments, beyond those relating to necessary European solidarity, highlight the importance of the agreement reached by the European Council last Tuesday with the approval of the European recovery fund.
These are methods that contribute to sustained economic growth and protect the environment. Master of Ceremonies, Ladies and Gentlemen, The development of a reading culture in our nation should be placed high on the national agenda if we are to achieve a sustainable economic future as a country. I am aware of the initiatives that the government through the Ministry of Education has come up with to encourage reading at an early stage. The primary reading programme and the concept of reading tent by the Zambia Library Service are some of the initiatives aimed at inculcating the habit of reading at an early age. Other partners in development such as the private sector and our cooperating partners have also been active. Important examples include the introduction of a reading bus by the British Council. All of these initiatives will contribute positively to the development of the reading culture. They certainly are encouraging, but more needs to be done. Particularly, the other key stakeholders who are parents and guardians of our school going children who should take interest in ensuring that children develop a culture of reading and writing. Ladies and Gentlemen, In closing my opening remarks, I wish to point out that currently most Zambian publishers are pre-occupied with the development and publication of core school textbooks where the market is readily available. I wish to challenge publishers to invest some of the profits in the publication of more diverse reading materials including Braille, music and physical education books.

As you may be aware, a literate citizenry is a key prerequisite for a sustainable economic future. It is now my honour and privilege to declare the 2008 ZAMBIA BOOK FAIR officially open. I thank you all for your kind attention. 2  BIS Review 74/2008
1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  The liquidity situation appears stable, and its indicators continue to be at good levels. In annual terms, the deposits base expanded by 2.7%, reflecting a shift in the maturity structure. Against the backdrop of low interest rates, time deposits fell at 2.1%. By currency, both lek and foreign currency deposits increased by 1.4% and 3.9%, respectively. Outstanding credit expanded from a year earlier by 0.8%. Long-term credit dominated, whereas short and medium-term maturities shrunk. Credit to households expanded by 4.6%, whereas credit to enterprises contracted by 1.7%, from a year earlier. One of the highlights of this year is the reduction of the non-performing loans ratio at 14.4%, compared with 18.23% at the end of the previous year. Now, after a relatively successfully period, the coordinated plan that we undertook together to reduce the stock of non-performing loans seems to have yielded the expected results. Therefore, in addition to the loss loans write off from the balance sheet, great results have been also achieved regarding the repayment and restructuring of non-performing loans. A number of regulations and other bylaws have been approved by the Supervisory Council of the Bank of Albania, throughout 2017. They aim at improving the banking activity in terms of efficiency, risk management, transparency and depositors’ protection. A special moment was the establishment of the Resolution Authority in Albania and of the Resolution Fund, which will receive regular annual contributions by the baking sector.

Gent Sejko: Economic and financial developments in Albania during 2017 and objectives for 2018 Address by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, at the end-of-year meeting organised by the Albanian Association of Banks, Tirana, 21 December 2017. * * * Honourable AAB Chairman, Dear banking system executives, Dear friends and colleagues, As always, it a pleasure for me to be together with banking system executives in Albania, in this annual end-of-year event organized under the auspices of the Albanian Association of Banks. In my address, I would like to briefly focus on highlights that have characterised the economic and financial developments in Albania over 2017, as well as on some of our objectives for 2018. Albanian economy The Albanian economy seems to be experiencing an overall positive moment of recovery, from both the global and the regional perspective. Economic activity continued to grow reflecting the favourable financial environment, improvement of confidence, impulses generated by employment gains and the high levels of foreign direct investments, as well as the positive momentum in the economies of our trading partners. In terms of aggregate demand, growth was driven by the expansion of private consumption and investments, and the improvement of the balance of trade with abroad, especially in the third quarter. In response to the improvement by around 10.5% of the trade deficit in goods and services, the current account deficit fell to 4.6% of the GDP in the third quarter, one of the lowest levels in the last decade.
A board member is not a figurehead, as they may seem, but someone responsible for the company’s development. Companies establish functions of risk management and internal controls, and protect dividend rights of their shareholders in the best possible way. And the last point I would like to make on the banking sector is the outcomes of major banks’ resolution under a new mechanism. Last year, we almost completed the resolution of three major banking groups and Asian-Pacific Bank. We created a bank of non-core and toxic assets, and all banks that underwent resolution already operate in the market in compliance with all ratios. It would be fair to say that the most difficult stage of banking sector resolution is behind us. Certainly, it was not painless and came at a cost. Last year, the Bank of Russia registered losses associated with the resolution and establishment of a non-core asset bank. However, the losses on the Bank of Russia’s balance sheet mean that depositors keep their money and entrepreneurs whose funds were placed in accounts with these banks remain solvent. We avoided larger losses in the economy and knock-on effects in the financial market. Our current objective is to return as much funds as possible through the sale of these banks and operations with non-core assets. Insurance market Last year, we launched an OSAGO reform.

Self-fulfilling expectations from economic agents and price setters would, in turn, help deliver the objectives of monetary policy. Economists believed that by stabilizing consumer prices, financial assets would also behave in a stable and predictable way. The crisis painfully reminds us that behavior in financial markets is not always rational and lack of confidence in the markets can spiral out of control, sending shockwaves throughout the economy. Escalating asset prices and their sudden burst affected significantly the behavior and balance sheets of the economic agents and challenged the stability of the financial system. In this respect, the concept of financial stability was seen as a byproduct of monetary stability. Micro-prudential supervision was focusing on the soundness of individual financial institutions, with the belief that this was sufficient to ensure aggregate stability of the financial system. Again, the recent financial crisis made it clear that micro-prudential supervision was insufficient to detect and address buildup of risks in the entire financial system due to externalities, herd behaviors, common exposures and pro-cyclicality in financial system activity. Moreover, financial institutions of systemic importance proved to be “too big to fail” and measures were needed to deal with existing systemic institutions on a global and local level. Recovery and resolution powers of financial institutions are being strengthened. Limiting systemic risk, both in its time and structural dimension, is the objective of macroprudential policy.
In all our presentations held in several Anatolian cities, at the Grand National Assembly or in the Council of Ministers Meetings since 2001, we, as the Central Bank, has pointed at the significance of the derivatives market and indispensability of these markets. Dear Guests, Now that we have briefly considered the phase of uncertainty and the process of development of risk management in Turkey, I would like to give you an overview of this development process in the world. First of all, let me remind you that although conducting transactions on the futures market dates back to a long time ago, its development has taken a long time. Regarding this issue, I would like to share with you some information that I believe to be interesting. Aristotles’s writings inform us that the first recorded account of derivative contracts can be traced 2500 years back to the ancient Greek Thales of Miletus, for the spring olive harvest during the winter. We know that rice futures were being traded in Japan in 17th century and futures for grains were traded in Holland in 18th century. The development of the financial derivatives exchange accelerated parallel to the need for hedging increased exchange rate risk after the collapse of the Bretton Woods System in the 1970s, which lasted for approximately 30 years and provided a system of fixed exchange rate system.

A fixed exchange rate means that the central bank, with the aid of currency market interventions or its policy rate, stabilises the exchange rate around a target, e.g. a price for the dollar, gold or an average of currencies, whereas under a floating exchange rate regime the exchange rate is determined by supply and demand in the currency market. With a fixed exchange rate, you avoid some of the uncertainty in world trade when countries exchange currencies with each other. There is a limit to how much a currency’s exchange rate can vary, which is good for importers and exporters when they are forecasting income and expenditure. The fixed exchange rate can also be seen as a way to achieve price stability. With a fixed exchange rate, inflation in the long term cannot be higher or lower than the inflation rates in the countries with which you have tied your exchange rate. For example, a fixed exchange rate against the dollar would ”force” us to maintain the same inflation rate in the long run as the US and the other countries whose currencies are pegged to the dollar. Were that to fail, our current account balance would deteriorate and we would have to devalue. BIS Review 84/2005  1  Sweden devalued five times between 1976 and 1982 under a fixed exchange rate (1976, twice in 1977, 1981 and 1982). That was because Sweden in the 1970s and 1980s had higher inflation than the other countries.
The project of creating an Integrated Reporting System for statistical and supervisory purposes in the National Bank is such an example. Recognizing the need for unifying and replacing partial reporting systems by banks for statistical and supervisory purposes, we have worked diligently to set up a single multifunctional reporting system. The potential benefits for us and our partners – banks and savings houses, are immense – lower burden on the reporters, and a richer granular data set that can be used for multiple purposes, thus replacing the traditional way of submitting aggregates. As a reminder, one of the lessons learnt from the crisis is that aggregated data is not always sufficient to detect vulnerabilities in the system. The technological requirements, as well as the need for coordination and standardization are not processes that rest solely with the central bank. In the eve of meeting European statistical standards, communication and coordination among the statistical bodies is crucial. In our case, we are proud of the excellent coordination with our partners, the State Statistical Office and the Ministry of Finance, who are here with us today. A significant step forward will be the introduction of the so-called integrated coordination system for compiling government statistics, with real-time data available to all three institutions. This would ultimately mean more consistent fiscal, financial and macroeconomic statistics. 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  Despite the gravity of the global crisis, the process of innovation and digitization continued post crisis, widely spread in the financial industry.

Source: CBRT. Inflation and monetary policy outlook  Distinguished Members of the Press, Esteemed Guests, Having summarized our monetary policy stance and the impact of this stance on financial markets, I would now like to talk about the macroeconomic outlook and assumptions underlying our forecasts. First, I would like to summarize the recent inflation developments and then I will compare our short-term forecasts with the actual data recorded in the first quarter. As you might recall, in the October 2010 Inflation Report, we drew attention to the price hikes due to increases in unprocessed food and tobacco prices, which are beyond the control of the CBRT, and concluded that these items would leave sizeable room for disinflation. In fact, during the subsequent two quarters, inflation declined by 5.2 percentage points and dropped to  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  4 percent in March, a level close to the lower bound of our January Inflation Report forecast (Chart 5). Chart 5. January 2011 Inflation Forecasts and Realizations  Forecast Range*  Uncertainty Band  Year-End Inflation Targets  12  Output Gap  Control Horizon  10 8 6 Percent  4 2 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 Dec-13  Sep-13  Jun-13  Mar-13  Dec-12  Sep-12  Jun-12  Mar-12  Dec-11  Sep-11  Jun-11  Mar-11  Sep-10  Dec-10  Jun-10  Mar-10  Dec-09  -10  * Shaded region indicates the 70 percent confidence interval for the forecast.
26 The financial sector has always been a critical gatekeeper in the fight against ML/TF, hence it shoulders a great responsibility to ensure strong safeguards against potential criminal fund flows. The American philosopher and author Eric Hoffer once said that “we are prone to generalise the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious”. In this case, I think it is a good idea not to be complacent. Some paranoia is not a bad thing. But let me emphasise that as a key financial centre, we are coming from a position of strength in combating ML/FT risks. We must remain so, by constantly addressing new or evolving vulnerabilities, in a manner consistent with FATF recommendations. 27 On this note, may I wish all of you a most fruitful and stimulating seminar. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5

The ECB is taking measures to ensure the proper transmission of its monetary policy and maintain price stability, which buys time for this adjustment to continue. Completing the euro area’s institutional architecture To stabilise EMU over the long-term, however, requires a more fundamental reform of the institutional architecture. The minimalist approach pursued at Maastricht was found to be inadequate in the context of highly integrated financial markets. In recognition of this, the Presidents of the European Council, Commission, Eurogroup and ECB have been asked to lay out a roadmap to complete EMU over the next decade. They presented their interim report to the European Council in July and will present a final version in December This Report does not aim to identify what features we would ideally like for the euro area, but rather what features it cannot do without. Having been thoroughly stress-tested over the last three years, we now have a much clearer idea of what rules and institutions are essential for monetary union to function effectively. In the view of the Four Presidents, a stable EMU needs to be built on four pillars: financial union, fiscal union, economic union and political union. Let me explain each in turn. Financial union The first and most urgent pillar is financial union or, as it is more commonly known, banking union.