samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
3 When one has had an increased degree of sick leave for a period of time, the norms are affected and it may become more acceptable to take sick leave. In connection with the 1990s crisis, it could be noted that sick leave declined significantly when the problems in the labour market increased. This may have been because people were more worried about losing their jobs and therefore avoided taking sick leave. Demographic changes Employment and unemployment may also be affected by demographic changes. It is known that unemployment is higher in certain groups of the population than others, for instance, it is higher among those born abroad and among young people (see Figure 9). Unemployment among young people (aged 16-24) is more than twice as high as unemployment in other groups. Unemployment among young people has shown a rising trend since the 1970s. Breaking this trend must be one of the most important domestic policy tasks of our time. Unemployment is also around twice as high among persons born in another country than among those born in Sweden. A period of increased immigration or reception of refugees can thus increase unemployment. Of course, this is not one of the main explanations for the changes in unemployment, but it can have more than a marginal effect when the demographic changes are substantial. This was the case during 1994-2000 when the number of persons of working age born abroad declined by 25 000.

If the process of authenticating yourself is easy and secure, you are more likely to begin using and continue using additive financial services. Payments is the most basic financial service. People are more likely to continue using digital payments if they can do so without regard for the recipient’s mobile provider or bank. In Singapore, in the case of both identity authentication and payments, we have striven to make the user experience seamless and delightful. MyInfo is Singapore’s shared consumer e-KYC engine. • There are more than 50 government and 200 private sector digital services that a user can access via MyInfo. •  Our personal data is spread across different government agencies. • They are not brought together because any one government agency should not know all the personal details about a citizen; agencies should only collect and access data relevant to their work. • MyInfo empowers the consumer to give consent to his service provider to access his personal data residing in different government agencies, be it for opening a bank account or applying for a credit card. PayNow is our system for cheaper, faster and secure interoperable peer-to-peer payments. It has reached $ billion in transactions per month. Other countries, notably India, Estonia, and the Nordics, have also created advanced industrywide digital infrastructures. • A next step would be to learn from one another’s experience in developing public digital infrastructures – to meet our own country needs as well as to ensure seamless interoperability of these infrastructures across borders.
At the end of 2003 the foreign reserves of BoA reached $ covering 4.7 months of imports. BoA continues to maintain its view of a free exchange rate regime. This was reflected in the fewer episodes of BoA’s intervention in the foreign exchange market during the first half of 2003, when the purchase of foreign currency was almost four times that of the second half of the year. Nonetheless, this did not hold back the domestic currency from appreciating against the euro and the US dollar, with a stronger appreciating trend in place in the second half of the year. The appreciation of the domestic currency was one of the factors behind BoA’s 2.0% interest rate cut during year 2003. Monetary indicators have generally been performed in compliance with the forecasts set out in the Bank’s monetary programme. The annual growth rate of lek deposits was 19.1% by the end of the year, which is significantly higher than the annual rates of the pervious years. The credit balance rose by L11.9bn or 30.9%. The new credit increased by 50% meanwhile 76% is in foreign currency. The loans/GDP ratio is still low, at about 7%. The banking system experienced important developments during 2003 and in the beginning of 2004. The entry of two new banks of Albanian capital was soon followed by the successful privatisation of the Savings Bank from the Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB) Austria. Now, all in all there are 16 banks in the Albanian Banking system.

Shkëlqim Cani: Review of the Albanian economy Statement by Dr Shkëlqim Cani, Governor of the Bank of Albania, for Euromoney Yearbooks, Global banking and financial policy review, Tirana, 9 August 2004. *  *  *  The Albanian economy experienced a recovered pulse of economic growth over the year 2003. Positive developments are marked in respect of consolidating the country’s macroeconomic stability, economic growth and a sound development of the financial system. A recovery in economic activity and 6% growth of Gross Domestic Product in real terms was proved by all sectors of the economy, but was particularly evident in the construction, transport and services sectors, which are the most dynamic sectors of Albanian economy. The year 2003 was characterised by a low inflation rate, within 2%-4% of the targeted range. The inflation rate as of December was 3.3%, meeting the Bank of Albania (BoA) target. Despite the various factors this low rate emerged from a diligent management of the domestic demand as an outcome of appropriate fiscal and monetary policies. BoA’s monetary policy has been a moderate one throughout 2003. Such a trend will continue during 2004 and was recently reflected by the reduction of the core interest rate in the economy. Since April 2003 the REPO rate has been lowered by 2.5%. The 6% REPO rate, decided on May 12, 2004, is the lowest ever in the Albanian economy. The policy aims to reduce borrowing costs in the economy and maintain price and financial stability.
Luis M Linde: The challenges of the Spanish economy Opening remarks by Mr Luis M Linde, Governor of the Bank of Spain, at the XXIII Meeting of the Financial Sector, organised by ABC, Deloitte and Sociedad de Tasación, Madrid, 19 April 2016. *  *  *  Introduction Let me begin by thanking Deloitte, Sociedad de Tasación and ABC for their kind invitation to deliver the closing address of this first session of the XXIII Financial Sector Meeting, devoted to analysing the challenge of profitability in an environment which is most definitely uncertain. I would like to address the situation of the Spanish economy and its main challenges. The recovery of the Spanish economy over the past three years has been one of the highlights of recent developments in the euro area. To explain it, we must consider both structural or more durable factors, and temporary ones, some of which have been given by the international context. The structural factors relate to the still-incomplete correction of the main imbalances built up during the last cyclical upturn and during the crisis, but also to the improved financial landscape. The job creation observed since 2013 has been a significant prop for demand and, by sustaining household disposable income, for the improvement in confidence. In the course of 2015 there was further progress in the ongoing deleveraging of households and firms, and Spain posted an external surplus or net lending, based largely on the gains in competitiveness achieved since the onset of the crisis.

BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Our private debt has improved – that is to say it has declined – in recent years, and we are now closer to the average for the euro area countries as a whole. Yet even so, despite the emergence in the past three years of a substantial external surplus, our external debt is a factor of vulnerability that cannot be underestimated because, excluding the Banco de España, public and private and bank and non-bank debt refinancing requirements exceed 45% of our GDP each year. Of this volume, around 60% relates to liabilities incurred by financial institutions, slightly more than 20% to general government and marginally less than 20% to non-financial corporations. Given this heavy financial dependence on the external sector, a downturn in the economic growth outlook might have a considerable effect on the terms of such financing and on the effort required to meet the foreign obligations incurred. Improving our external position hinges largely on our competitiveness, that is to say on our productivity. Allow me to elaborate on this point. 4. The improvement in productivity  In the long run, economic growth is essentially determined by gains in productivity.
Durmuş Yilmaz: Central banking in emerging economies – the Turkish experience Speech by Mr Durmuş Yilmaz, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, at the “International Conference on Economics”, Ankara, 12 September 2006. *  *  *  Dear professors, colleagues, and guests, I am very pleased to participate in such a conference covering a broad range of economic issues and attended by many distinguished academicians from different countries. It is also a great pleasure to deliver a speech on the topic of central banking in emerging economies and the Turkish experience. Dear guests, Given the wide range of issues related to central banking in emerging economies and the limited time available, I have decided to limit the extent of my remarks today. I’d like to talk about the challenges we face as today’s central bankers in emerging market countries, mainly in the context of the Turkish experience. However, before embarking on this subject, let me first of all step back and take a look at the evolution of central banking, especially in the recent past. There is no doubt about that throughout the 20th century, central banking has undergone a tremendous transformation both in numerical terms and institutional aspects. At the beginning of the last century, for example, there were just 15 central banks in the world.

4 In this context, emerging countries are forced to borrow in units of currencies that they are basically unable to issue. All these concerns have direct impact on the fragility of financial markets. Therefore, any doubt over the sustainability of fiscal discipline causes volatility in financial variables and has a high possibility of endangering central bank goals. In the case of Turkey, when we look back, we see that the period of high and variable inflation coincides with high public deficit being financed by the Central Bank. An increasing lack of fiscal discipline in public expenditures and further widening of budget deficits caused inflation to get out of control and the public sector borrowing requirement to grow continuously. This structure affected the banking system, as well. The Turkish banking sector was not able to perform its intermediary function effectively. Instead, the sector mostly financed public sector deficits. Looking to the present, on the other hand, one of the most important changes is that the Central Bank of Turkey no longer extends credits to the Treasury or any other public institution by the amendment made in its Law in 2001. And it is no coincidence that inflation has been on a declining trend since then. Moreover, tight fiscal policies have been put into practice for the last five years. A very high level of primary surplus, that is 6.5 percent, has been targeted. The positive effect of these measures has started to be observed in several areas.
Monetary policy will still have a channel into the wider economy, and even though banks may look different in the future than they do today, they will not become obsolete. 6/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  But we cannot sit still. Going forward, it will be even more important for banks to develop their services in pace with technological advances and the public’s wishes. And I can promise, on behalf of Norges Bank, that we will do our part to ensure that paying in Norwegian kroner will continue to be an attractive and safe alternative in the future. This is a task we do not take lightly. Thank you for your attention. 1 Several sources attribute the quote to Christian Magnus Falsen. 2 Røkke, K. I. (2020): Shareholder letter, Seetee. 3 Andersen, H (2020): “The cost efficiency improvement of Norwegian banks can be explained by automation and  digitalisation”. Staff Memo 9/2020. Norges Bank. 4 EBA (2021): “Risk Dashboard – Data as of Q4 2020”. 5  The legal basis for banks’ money creation is set out in the Financial Institutions Act, which stipulates that only banks may take deposits from an unrestricted range of depositors. But the formulation take deposits may be somewhat misleading as it also implies that banks may also create deposits. A deposit is an obligation to pay money. Since banks have the right to hold deposits, they can record such obligations on their own balance sheet without having to procure money in advance.

Dimitar Bogov: World Savings Day - the importance of savings in Macedonia Speech by Mr Dimitar Bogov, Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, in front of the Banking Association of the Economic Chamber of Macedonia, marking 31 October the World Savings Day, Skopje, 31 October 2017. * * * Ladies and gentlemen, dear bankers and guests, It is a great pleasure to address you on the occasion of marking the World Savings Day. This is the day when we emphasize the important role of savings, not only in terms of its role as a source of funding for the banks, but also its immediate importance for the economy as a whole and for maintaining financial stability. All of us, you as bankers and we in the National Bank, as regulators, have many times been convinced in the truth of the saying that maintaining bank stability reflects the depositors’ confidence. This year, the banks enjoyed the trust of the population, regardless of the unfavorable influence of the domestic political developments on the ordinary citizen and the depositor. This is also confirmed by the latest available data on the movement of household deposits. As of September, household deposits show a very solid growth rate of 5.8%, which is an important indicator for stabilizing depositors’ expectations and perceptions amid unstable environment and restraint of economic agents from investment in the first half of this year.
While facing numerous and difficult challenges, the country has continued to produce university and college graduates of international standards year in year out. This situation would not have been possible, had it not be for the past tremendous contributions and personal sacrifices made by a number of citizens under the guidance of leaders who had great foresight and fortitude. The dedication and ingenuity of our teachers and lecturers both in the past and today, have also massively contributed to the economic development we have achieved to date. I have no doubt that our nation needs more of such outstanding and dedicated citizens at all levels of society to take our country’s development to a higher level. Mr President, as we speak, Zambia’s economy is facing numerous challenges emanating from the global financial turmoil. As you are no doubt aware, the crisis has already resulted in a reduction in commodity prices including that of copper. The Zambian foreign exchange market has also been partly affected as is reflected in the volatility and weakening of the Kwacha exchange rate in the recent past. The result of all this is lower Government revenues and more expensive imports which would in turn culminate in higher inflation. Unfortunately, for a low income country like Zambia, lower Government revenue entail lower spending on social amenities including Education and Health. High cost of goods and services also mean that most of our citizens would not afford to educate their families.

Luis M Linde: Introduction to Christian Noyer Speech by Mr Luis M Linde, Governor of the Bank of Spain, introducing Christian Noyer at the Foro de la Nueva, Madrid, 28 June 2013. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, It is an honour and pleasure for me to introduce to you today, here at the Foro de la Nueva Economía, my colleague and friend Christian Noyer, the Governor of the Banque de France. With the presence of Governor Noyer, the Foro de la Nueva Economía continues its tradition of inviting distinguished international personalities from the world of administration, business and politics, to promote the exchange of ideas on matters of particular interest to society. I will begin my brief description of the career of Governor Noyer by emphasising something in his curriculum vitae: Christian Noyer is a good friend of our country. The Spanish government has recognised this, by awarding him the Gran Cruz de la Orden del Mérito Civil. With a legal training – he studied law at Rennes and Paris – Governor Noyer subsequently graduated from the Institut d’Études Politiques and the École Nationale d’Administration, the school for senior civil servants and top corporate executives. His professional career began in 1976, when he joined the Treasury in the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance, where he held various positions relating to debt management, regulation of the financial industry and the management of public corporations.
As host supervisors we learnt all too clearly the need to get sufficient detail on the significance of overseas banks’ branch activities to understand their potential impact on UK financial stability, the need to understand the major risks run by a global parent and the impact that might have on UK operations, and the potential need for early supervisory intervention. In the immediate aftermath of the crisis, and reflecting these lessons, there was a change in approach from this fragmentation to regulatory balkanisation. This approach is aligned with the pure host-led model I described earlier and is based on the premise that host entities should be clearly separable and separated from their parent group. At the extreme, this treats local subsidiaries in isolation from the parent group, with a sufficient local pool of capital and liquidity so that it is self-sustainable in the event of failure, ensuring that the entity can be resolved on its own. On the face of it, this provides for domestic financial stability. However, it is not without cost. The benefits of international trade and capital flows are reduced. Total global capital requirements are higher since the benefits of diversification in international banking are not recognised. And how realistic anyway is the premise of self-sustainability at the individual country level for businesses that are inherently global and closely integrated – as opposed to groups that represent in effect a collection of standalone retail banks.

Although the main determinants – such as the behaviour of employment – will not be favourable, the high level of the household saving rate makes it conceivable that, if the factors of uncertainty were to progressively dispel, consumption might recover significantly. The main factor underpinning activity in 2010 should therefore be the external sector. The fact that the recovery in the Spanish economy lags that in the other European countries somewhat may provide for more expansionary behaviour of exports, whose trajectory has been reasonably positive. Foreseeably, then, a gradual growth phase based on recovery in the external sector and on the progressive extension of its impulses to business investment and employment will begin over the course of next year, laying the bases for a demand-led expansion. However, as a result of the spillover effect of the negative 2009 rates, average growth in 2010 might post a moderate decline. This trajectory of slow recovery in activity broadly matches the government’s macroeconomic projection that acts as a basis for the State Budget for 2010. Yet as I said, there is a risk that business investment may perform somewhat worse than foreseen in this scenario. But in my view, what is most important at present is not the exact date on which activity will begin to post a positive rate or whether its rate of increase will be greater or less than forecast in 2010; rather, it is the scale of the medium-term challenges involved in exiting the most complicated situation the Spanish economy has faced in recent decades.
With a hierarchical mandate, price stability is a primary objective and highest sustainable employment is a subordinate objective, while with a dual mandate price stability and highest sustainable  2  2  Government bill 2011/12:100 page 29. BIS central bankers’ speeches  employment have equal status. As I point out in Svensson (2004), there is in practice no difference between these mandates. It is a question of distinguishing between means and variances, what is known in statistics as first and second moments. With regard to mean inflation and mean employment, the mandate is hierarchical. The central bank sets just one target, which is the inflation target. The highest sustainable rate of employment is not set by the central bank; it is determined by the structure of the economy and the way it functions, and it may change over time. It can only be estimated, not set, by the central bank. With regard to the variance in inflation and employment, the mandate is dual. There it is a matter of stabilising both, in an appropriate trade-off. This applies both to the Riksbank and the Federal Reserve. Stabilising employment around a long-run sustainable path is in practice the same thing as stabilising unemployment around an estimated, long-run sustainable rate. 3 One can therefore regard stabilising unemployment around a long-run sustainable rate as an operational target to stabilise employment around a long-run sustainable development path.

BIS central bankers’ speeches  13  A higher average unemployment rate by 0.8 percentage points over 15 years is of course a very large cost to the real economy of undershooting the inflation target. At present, a higher unemployment rate of 0.8 percentage points corresponds to around 40,000 jobs. In comparison, it can be mentioned that the government’s own calculations show that the four stages in the earned income tax credit and the changes in unemployment insurance reduce unemployment in the long run by 0.6 and 0.7 percentage points respectively. 17 The respective reforms are thus expected to have a slightly smaller effect on unemployment than the calculated real-economic cost of inflation on average undershooting the target over the past 15 years. Implications for future monetary policy Why average inflation in Sweden has undershot the target over the past 15 years is a separate and important question that requires thorough examination. I do not intend to discuss this here. But a clear conclusion for future monetary policy is that it is important that the Riksbank ensures that average inflation is actually close to 2 per cent over a longer period of time and that it does not fall as low as during the past 15 years. This means that the inflation target must be regarded as symmetrical and that it should constitute a central point for the fluctuations in inflation. One should thus not be more afraid of overshooting the target during a limited period than undershooting it.