samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
But the effects have undoubtedly been felt most severely by manufacturing. The frustration felt by those who have built up efficient and competitive businesses, only to find their market position threatened by a rise in the exchange rate over which they have no control, is entirely understandable. In our judgments on interest rates, we consider it extremely important to take account of differences in the conditions that different sectors of the economy, and different regions of the country, may be facing. For that reason, our 12 Agents, located around the country, keep closely in touch with local business and provide us with a continuous and very up-to-date feedback on local business conditions. Visits like my own today provide valuable opportunities for MPC members to supplement at first hand the feedback we get from our Agents. The message we get - that the rise in sterling has been, and is, causing severe strains, comes through loud and clear and we give that considerable weight in our judgments about interest rates.

When the weaknesses  BIS Review 99/2006  1  were not adequately addressed, the process of reconstituting the Board and management of Bank Islam was initiated in 2003. In such an exercise, key shareholders are expected to be proactive in making prudent and responsible action to remove any member or employee that is found to be unsuitable or not having the required calibre so as to avoid a prolonged process in the reconstruction of the Board and management of the bank. It needs to be recognized that the responsibility for the safety and soundness at the institutional level rests primarily with the Board and the management of each banking institution and the key stakeholders such as the significant shareholders. Institutional investors should also have an active role and make swift and bold decisions in ensuring that only capable individuals are appointed and remain on the Board and senior management of banking institutions. Currently, virtually all the directors and key executives of Bank Islam are new, with diverse banking experience. In accelerating the provisions and in instituting the measures to address the bank's system, processes and business culture, it has now paved the way for drawing in new shareholders. It can now offer a valued proposition. And indeed, the participation of a new strategic investor will in fact further strengthen the bank. This has allowed the existing and new shareholders to focus taking the bank to the next level and to capitalize on the new opportunities the environment offers.
The average growth rate during these years was just over 3 per cent. This was very different from the average growth we had during the previous ten years. During the transition phase between these periods a number of important changes were implemented regarding the allocation of resources in society. Here I am referring to the deregulation of the financial markets, reforms in the pension, tax and social insurance systems and a reduction in the burden of taxation. In addition, wage formation has been improved, which has probably been facilitated by monetary policy focussing on price stability. It seems to me probable that the return to macroeconomic stability and in particular the structural reforms have actively contributed to the favourable developments of the past decade. On the other hand, I do not believe that the changeover to a floating exchange rate has been crucial in itself. Over the past century Sweden has mostly had a fixed exchange rate and usually shown good growth. At the same time, the past ten-year period has been a special one in terms of the euphoric expectations of the “new economy” connected to telecommunications and IT. This contributed to soaring stock market prices, followed by a fall of historic proportions. History can demonstrate similar episodes. The railway construction in the 19th century gave rise to similar over-optimism, as did the introduction of electric and internal combustion engines at the beginning of the 20th century. Sometimes, these periods of over-optimism have put considerable strain on the financial system.

These opposing wishes can be reconciled via banks, and also directly via the financial markets. The latter assumes that there are well-developed secondary markets with a large turnover in, for instance, equity. This enables companies to borrow long-term while savers can quickly sell their shares if they so desire. Risks are managed through the spread in borrowing, but also by transferring them, against payment, to others in the financial market. The spread and redistribution of financial risks enables investments to be made that would not otherwise have been possible. The third and final main task is the intermediation of payments, which enables payment to be smoothly made and received for goods and services sold either in the conventional manner or via, for instance, the Internet. 2  BIS Review 37/2003  In countries like Sweden we tend to take it for granted that these functions work. However, if we try to imagine that they did not exist, we will realise how extremely central they are to the functioning of the economy and to our welfare. If we imagine a country where savers and investors did not have access to functioning and reliable banks and financial markets, it is easy to see how this would hamper development. The effect would be a tendency for savings to move abroad, while profitable investment projects did not get off the ground in countries with an undeveloped financial sector. If we look back at the 1950s, we can see that the intermediation of payments functions much more smoothly today.
Michael C Bonello: Financial crisis impact on the Maltese economy Speech by Mr Michael C Bonello, Governor of the Central Bank of Malta, at the annual dinner of the Malta Institute of Financial Services – Malta, Saint Julian’s, 5 December 2008. *  *  *  I would first of all like to thank you, Mr President, and your Council for inviting me to address the members of your Institute and their guests. I would also like to commend IFS Malta’s growing contribution to the Maltese economy through its learning activities, and in particular its involvement in the Education Council. I understand that it has also been participating actively in the work of the European Banking Training Network, and that it will next year start offering the Foundation Degree Programme of the University of Kent and the IFS School of Finance. When I addressed this distinguished gathering a year ago, the world was a very different place. At the time, the ECB forecast a euro area growth rate of around 2% for 2009; now the talk is about the likely depth and duration of the incipient recession. A year ago we were concerned about the upside risks to inflation; only twelve months later the prospects are of inflation falling well below the ECB’s price stability objective. What has gone so terribly wrong, so quickly? In The Great Crash, 1929, J.K. Galbraith noted that “Far more important than rate of interest and the supply of credit is the mood”.

On 8 October, six of the world’s major central banks, including the ECB, cut official interest rates by half a percentage point in a coordinated move. Later in the month, the Eurosystem shifted the conduct of its monetary operations toward the injection of liquidity at fixed rates, with full allotment at the minimum bid rate, to ease funding concerns and to drive money market rates closer to official ones. A further half-point interest rate cut by the ECB followed in November, and yesterday we reduced rates by a further 75 basis points amid growing evidence that inflationary pressures are diminishing further. The crisis has so far had a limited impact on the domestic financial system and on the Maltese economy. While the latest data point to continued, if slower economic expansion in the third quarter, Maltese banks continue to benefit from an approach based on traditional intermediation between retail depositors and borrowers. Their funding model, therefore, eschews reliance on wholesale markets; they have substantial liquidity, adequate capital and prudent lending policies. Exposures to asset-backed securities or failed institutions are small, while lending in foreign currency to residents is limited. It would be naïve, indeed dangerous, however, to expect that the turmoil abroad will leave the Maltese economy and its financial system unscathed. First, Malta has a small open economy, highly dependent on trade. As the recession grips our major markets, Maltese exporters will be increasingly affected.
At today’s oil price, it seems that virtually none of the new field developments planned on the Norwegian shelf can be realised at a profit. But cost calculations may change. Oil prices are not the only prices trending downwards. The cost level on the Norwegian shelf is also drifting down. This is perhaps best illustrated by developments in rig rates. The rates followed oil prices upwards, but have fallen in recent months. At the same time, oil companies are slashing costs. The development of the Johan Sverdrup field is now profitable even at oil prices around USD 30 per barrel. For the Castberg field development in the Barents Sea, the breakeven price has been reduced from more than USD 80 to below USD 45 per barrel. 3 Norway’s oil age is not over. Proven crude oil reserves are larger today than 10 years ago despite substantial sales over the period. 4 Our gas resources are even larger. So far, only a third of the estimated exploitable Norwegian gas resources have been produced. 5 Oil and gas prices will to a large extent determine the quantity that will be extracted. That is something we can do little about. What we can do is to optimise production efficiency on the Norwegian shelf as far as possible. There is still potential in this respect. Increased productivity and lower costs in the oil industry will contribute to sustaining activity on the Norwegian shelf, which will also benefit the oil service industry.

There have been signs of such behaviour across the housing markets in advanced economies. In anticipation of similar risks arising in the UK the Bank’s MPC and FPC have met jointly to review them. The FPC has identified a graduated range of macroprudential tools available to it for a coherent, proportionate response to these risks, and has taken initial, prudent steps. As the housing market evolves and macroprudential policy responds the FPC and MPC will continue to work together to understand the collective impact of measures on residual vulnerabilities and macroeconomic outcomes. That co-ordination, the shared monitoring of risks, and clarity over the FPC’s tools allows monetary policy to keep Bank Rate as low as necessary for as long as appropriate in order to support the recovery and maintain price stability. For example expectations of the future path of interest rates – and hence longer-term borrowing costs – have not risen as the housing market has begun to recover quickly. Macroprudential and microprudential policy There is also a natural complementarity between macro and microprudential policy because, in essence, macroprudential policy uses prudential policy tools for macroeconomic ends, specifically the mitigation of risks that could in time undermine price and financial stability. 12 So the two will often operate through the same channels – albeit towards different objectives. 11  See Adrian and Shin (2010), Jimenez et al. (forthcoming). 12  For example, the Basel III framework for capital regulation combines microprudential and macroprudential elements.
In this regard, FAIR will review the scope of financial advisory activities currently carried out in insurance brokers. Some insurance brokers advise on group term life insurance to complement the suite of general insurance products offered to their corporate customers. However, over the years, we have noticed that for some insurance brokers, FA activities and revenue from the advisory business have eclipsed that of their core insurance broking business. MAS is concerned that insurance brokers may not have sufficient management expertise and compliance capability to oversee and manage the FA portion of their business. Lowering distribution costs Our fourth key thrust is to lower the cost of distribution, so that we can keep the overall cost of life insurance products affordable for Singaporeans. Direct sales of simple products The online channel is one of the ways in which we can lower distribution costs. We have seen the use of direct sales via the internet for the distribution of general insurance products such as travel insurance and motor insurance. Why not life insurance? The industry could explore the use of the internet as an alternative distribution channel to offer life insurance to consumers at competitive prices. Online distribution will also mean that products will have to be simplified. Simple term life insurance via the internet could be a good way to help lower cost and make affordable insurance protection more readily available to a wider population. And simple term life insurance is sometimes all that a person needs to protect against risk.

The financial crisis that shook the industrialized world could have caused a major disaster with unimaginable consequences on developing economies, much more severe than actually occurred. Had it not been for the determination of the economic policymakers around the world to stabilize the financial systems and implement significant fiscal and monetary packages, the economic performance would have been much worse. Nevertheless, the world could not prevent the “Great Recession”, the name with which this period has been already labeled, and world output will fall for the first time in sixty years. The ability of macroeconomic policies to react promptly was particularly important for developing economies, cushioning the impact of the global crisis and making it much milder than in the past. Chile was no exception. As we said time and again from the onset of the crisis, our economy could not and would not be immune to the events occurring in the world. Nonetheless, as we have also insisted, the policy framework we have in place allowed us to mitigate the effects of the global economic scenario. Today, two weeks short of the end of the year, we know that although we were not spared the recession, its impact was much milder than we had been accustomed to. It is enough to recall just a couple of episodes. In 1982–1983, while Chile saw GDP fall dramatically, the world economy was growing. Measured in market prices, Chile’s GDP variation was around 18 percentage points below the world average.
Supervisors should also stand ready to act if bubbles like phenomena appear in some markets. For emerging economies, measures aimed at stabilizing capital inflows may help and relieve the pressure on domestic financial conditions and prevent further asset bubbles. International financial architecture In the longer run, however, we may need to work together towards a more efficient and stable international financial architecture. Let me highlight three possible avenues for progress. First, we have to find ways of dealing with international capital flows volatility. For one given country, capital controls may temporarily reduce the pressure on its capital account or even permanently limit the volatility of its exchange rate. For the whole international system, however, they may simply displace the pressure to other countries or asset classes and exacerbate, rather than reduce, overall volatility. There might be ways to eliminate those  2  BIS Review 160/2010  negative effects by creating a predictable framework defining the circumstances, modalities and conditions through which temporary controls would be implemented. Second, there would be benefits in finding ways to disconnect reserve accumulation from exchange rate management and, more generally, from balance of payment situations and monetary policies. At present, reserve accumulation can only occur through a conjunction of balance of payment surplus and some degree of exchange rate intervention. Emerging countries have increased their foreign exchange reserves from 4 percent of GDP in 1990 to over 20 percent on average today.

Global imbalances and financial stability There is broad agreement on the need to rebalance aggregate demand across the world. That shared objective has underpinned the cohesion exhibited by G20 countries during the acute phase of the crisis. It has played an essential role in 2008 and 2009 in restoring confidence and setting the path for the recovery. However, this concerted approach to global  BIS Review 160/2010  1  imbalances may have weakened recently. There is clearly a debate going on about two major and interrelated issues: first, the appropriate pace of the rebalancing, with advanced countries feeling a greater sense of urgency; and second, on the most efficient strategies, in particular regarding exchange rates. It would a mistake to ascribe responsibility for imbalances to one specific cause. All countries have legitimate concerns. We have seen in recent weeks a tendency by countries to challenge each other monetary policy. This cannot produce a good outcome. We have to start from three basic realities. First, countries are free to conduct monetary policies they deemed appropriate. Indeed, when Central Banks are independent, they are legally obliged to do so. Monetary policies are conducted with domestic objectives in mind but, as you have noticed, all central banks have the same mandate: to maintain price stability. This is true for all countries, whether small or large. The world has enormously benefited from two decades of price stability resulting from monetary regimes based on Central bank independence and a focus on internal price stability.
Some of the critical ones are: the security of the bank’s IT systems and protection of logins; confirmation of all transactions  BIS Review 15/2008  3  with all counterparties; respect for “Chinese Walls” between front and back offices; monitoring of cancellations and changes in trades coming from a single trader; and “atypical” behaviour such as failure to take holidays by Kerviel – the rogue trader. 3. Changes to the regulatory framework in Sri Lanka  3.1 Several new regulatory measures have been introduced to strengthen the regulatory and supervisory framework in Sri Lanka. In recent times, the Central Bank has moved away from compliance-based supervision to risk-focused supervision. In 2002, the Central Bank issued a voluntary code of governance for banks and financial institutions expecting them to improve their corporate governance. However, the introduction of this code did not show significant improvement at Board level, primarily due to lack of commitment by the Boards. The Central Bank’s regulatory examinations of banks and financial institutions have raised concerns on corporate governance, inadequate systems and controls, exposure to related party transactions, under-estimation of non-performing loans and inadequate provisioning for bad and doubtful loans, weak administration of loan accounts and potential credit risk and lapses in submission of periodical returns to the regulatory authorities. Almost all of these concerns are related to non-availability of a proper GRC processes in financial institutions.

Following a two-week dual circulation period during which payments could be made using either euro or Slovak koruna, the euro became the sole legal tender in Slovakia from 17 January 2009 and the changeover was very smooth. Today, the single currency is used in an area that stretches from Cyprus to Ireland and from Portugal to Finland. As you know, the euro cash did not enter into circulation until 1 January 2002, when it replaced the banknotes and coins of the national currencies like, in the case of Italy, the lira. To support the cash changeover, which was one of the largest logistical operations undertaken in Europe, extensive information campaigns were successfully run to acquaint citizens with the visual appearance of the euro banknotes and coins. The euro is widely recognised as a currency of major significance on the international level. Some 12 billion banknotes circulate in Europe and beyond, representing a face value of more than EUR 700 billion. The number of euro banknotes in circulation continued to grow since the initial cash changeover in 2002 and their value has almost tripled since the end of the changeover period. With this success story in mind, we are confidently looking forward to the anniversaries to come, which will be marked by the full consolidation of the euro and its further adoption by new member states. 2. The Euro Exhibition  Today we inaugurate the Euro Exhibition here in Rome.
Several of them have issued their own bills for this purpose, particularly where in the early years the finance ministry was reluctant to issue government paper. Whether the market being developed is in government, central bank or private paper, the central banks have had to strike a difficult balance in deciding how frequently to intervene in the markets. In the absence of intervention, a market can remain illiquid and unused. But if the central bank intervenes too much and holds prices too steady, then private market-makers will not develop. This dilemma is not unique to transition countries. Similar dilemmas arise elsewhere, and some western central banks still sometimes play a role, if only a marginal one, in balancing supply and demand in the domestic securities and foreign exchange markets. (iv) Payment and settlement systems One area of activity in which the new central banks do mirror the diversity of their western counterparts is in responsibility for payment and settlement systems. Of the nine central banks in central and eastern Europe, five operate the main clearing system themselves. In the other four countries the position is roughly as it is here, with the central bank participating BIS Review 33/1997  -8-  in, and providing final settlement for, a privately owned clearing system. In Russia the central bank has been slow to develop its own payment system, and commercial banks have been putting parallel mechanisms in place.

Philip R Lane: Monetary policy, low interest rates and low inflation Dinner remarks by Mr Philip R Lane, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at the Centre for European Reform, London, 27 February 2020. * * * It is a pleasure to be invited to speak at the Centre for European Reform. Before turning to the longer-term issues that are the primary focus of this speech, I wish to comment on the coronavirus. As emphasised by President Lagarde earlier today, we are closely monitoring the information about the spread of the coronavirus, which is first and foremost a public health emergency, with the most severe impact on the families of those that have died from the virus. In terms of the macro-financial implications, the more quickly is the virus contained, the smaller will be the impact on the world economy and the faster will be the recovery. Conversely, more widespread contagion and a longer interruption in normal economic activity constitute additional downside risks to near-term projections. Accordingly, it is a priority for the ECB to assess on a continuous basis the implications of the evolving situation for economic and financial conditions. In my remarks this evening, I aim to outline some of the factors that are relevant in understanding the role of monetary policy in the current environment of low interest rates and low inflation.1 First, there has been a trend decline in the underlying equilibrium real interest rate since the 1980s.