samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
In a separate press release, the committee explains how the formulations may be interpreted. The Federal Reserve does not publish a traditional inflation report like the Bank of England’s with projections of future developments. However, in connection with the Chairman’s semi-annual testimony to Congress, estimates are given of probable ranges for GDP growth, consumer price inflation and unemployment. The minutes of Committee meetings are published after six weeks, and disclose the way individual members have voted. A complete transcript of proceedings is released after five years. Members express individual views on monetary policy. Norges Bank analyses the inflation outlook in separate inflation reports which are published three times a year. Further assessments regarding the inflation outlook are presented every six weeks in connection with the monetary policy meetings at which the Executive Board sets interest rates. Central aspects of the modelling tools and our view of the functioning of the economy are examined in detail in the Inflation Report and in articles in the journal Penger og Kreditt and its English counterpart Economic Bulletin. The minutes of monetary policy meetings are not published. The Executive Board functions as a unified group in relation to the public. In Canada and New Zealand, responsibility lies with the central bank governor, and therefore only one view is expressed. In the ECB, Australia, Switzerland and Norway, the decision-making body speaks to the public with one voice. Like Norway, Australia includes external members in the body that makes decisions regarding the interest rate.

Muhammad bin Ibrahim: Building trust in the insurance industry Speech by Mr Muhammad bin Ibrahim, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Malaysian Insurance & Takaful Industry Distinguished Partner Awards Dinner 2015 “Building Trust in the Insurance Industry”, Kuala Lumpur, 23 October 2015. *  *  *  It brings me great pleasure to be here tonight at the inaugural Malaysian Insurance and Takaful Industry Distinguished Partner Awards Dinner. Since the Central Bank assumed regulatory role of the industry 27 years ago, the insurance and takaful landscape has transformed significantly. The insurance and takaful penetration rate, measured by the number of policies per population, has increased four-fold from 11% in 1988 to 56% today, and the total paid-up capital of direct insurers has grown twelve-fold from RM635 million to RM8 billion over the same period. Today, the industry has emerged much stronger than when we first started the journey together in 1988. We should take pride in our historical track record the various changes that we had made, the difficult but satisfying journey that we embarked on to realise the full potential of the industry. It is indeed a transformational change that enable the industry to be in the strong position they are now. But at the same time we should not believe that the same thinking and strategy that drove yesterday’s solutions will be as effective tomorrow.
Yet, despite highly expansionary monetary policies around the world, many large advanced economies have not recovered as strongly as hoped. In Switzerland, the recovery has been relatively robust by international standards. Yet inflation in our country, as in many other countries, is still lower than we would like. So the past few years have shown clearly that an expansionary monetary policy is not a panacea for catalysing growth in the major advanced economies. Expansionary monetary policy is no substitute for necessary structural measures and it must not delay them. Monetary policy influences the economy’s growth potential only insofar as price stability reduces uncertainty. Beyond this, it has no effect on economic growth in the longer term. For this reason, longer-term growth prospects can only be improved through structural measures. For instance, the promotion of education, research and development can increase productivity growth. Good economic conditions support growth: if entrenched labour market structures are dismantled, competition is encouraged, and contracts are reliably enforced, the economy  Page 8/16  becomes more efficient. A pension system that is sustainable in the long term can allay people’s fears about an uncertain income in their old age, and thereby avoid an excessive propensity to save. If such reforms in the major world economies are successful in positively influencing expectations about future income and returns, then global demand for consumption and investment could rise today.

Mugur Isărescu: The macroeconomic perspective in Romania Welcome speech by Mr Mugur Isărescu, Governor of the National Bank of Romania, at the Romanian-Czech Business Forum, Bucharest, 20 May 2014. *  *  *  Your Excellency, President Zeman, you are most welcome here, at the National Bank of Romania, a place that holds within its walls countless pieces of history, tails of how Romania has grown into a modern state. We are privileged to greet here, today. Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen, Allow me to extend a very warm welcome and thank you all for gracing us with your presence at the Romanian-Czech Business Forum. It is a great pleasure for the National Bank of Romania, and an honor for me and for the members of the board, to host what will be a substantial discussion about the challenges currently facing Europe, in particular the development of economic relations between the Czech Republic and Romania. Here, at the National Bank of Romania, we take pride in having always been a forum for debating, in an open and profound manner, the themes and trends defining our age. A few weeks ago we celebrated the 134-th anniversary of the Romanian National Bank, a central bank ranking 16-th in the world. During the break, after the working sessions, you are kindly invited to visit/walk the outstanding halls of the Old Palace of our national bank.
Over $ billion in floating-rate financing based on SOFR has been issued in all sectors of the debt markets.21 And the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee has discussed the possibility of issuing SOFR-linked floating-rate notes. These are all reasons for optimism. But I’m a realist—some would say a pessimist. It is not yet time to chill the champagne. As I said at the beginning of my remarks, much work remains. Life After LIBOR and How We Get There Looking forward, the risks from LIBOR transition are both macro- and micro-prudential—a risk to the system is always built up from risks to individual firms. On the macro scale, as I mentioned earlier, the FSOC has identified reference rate transition as a financial stability risk. The President of the New York Fed, John Williams, was just appointed co-chair of the FSB’s steering group. He succeeds Fed Chairman Jerome Powell in that role. From the beginning, the Fed’s mantra has been that the transition away from LIBOR has to be led by the private sector. But the Fed clearly has a role to play. The New York Fed will continue to be engaged through our work with the ARRC, our coordination with the other international transition efforts, and our role as administrator of our own benchmark rates. At the micro level, sound risk management demands that every firm assess its vulnerabilities if LIBOR ceases to be published, and engage in appropriate planning to address those risks across its balance sheet.

This success shows that regulation of crypto players and  Page 3 sur 5 crypto assets and more broadly of payments is one course of action where a “pragmatic” or “focused” multilateralism can, and must, still deliver. To avoid further payments fragmentation, there are two imperatives: (i) let us keep coordinated. I am sometimes impressed by the growing number of international bodies which play in the “crypto-regulations” orchestra; we need a strong, single conductor, and that should be the FSB (ii) let us implement in all jurisdictions. The current moment calls less for further global reflection or ever refining of taxonomies of financial tokens, and more for decisions and the monitoring of basic, consistent and robust national regulations. II. Central banks have their own driver’s seat in innovation Digital technologies are profoundly transforming finance: from artificial intelligence, API and mobile apps for the development of open banking and of the “banking-as-a-service”, to distributed ledger technology and smart contracts. We are certain to see a significant development of tokenised and decentralised finance. In such a context, our stance at the Banque de France is both to support regulatory reforms and to play an active innovative role. The Banque de France has been using blockchain for several years now. In 2017, we were the very first central bank worldwide to implement a blockchain solution to manage, together with commercial banks, a repository of creditors.
Since in recent years a part of household wealth has taken the form of property investments, if the number of houses used to generate funds through rental could be increased, it would also help many owners to meet their debts. A third area in which reform is fundamental is the labour market. The performance of this market will probably be the key to determining whether the current adjustment will be rapid and slight or whether it will be prolonged and far-reaching. It is often said that the Spanish labour market is very flexible, and the evidence cited for this is the high proportion of  4  BIS Review 117/2008  temporary workers. Indeed, the existence of a relatively high proportion of temporary contracts may mean that some firms have a greater capacity to respond to changes in economic conditions, but these contracts are not evenly spread across sectors, nor would they seem to be conducive to the proper training of workers. Moreover, the idea that the labour market is flexible because it allows the burden of adjustment to fall on temporary workers is hardly equitable, since it means that a very specific group (generally the last entrants to the labour market) bears the main burden of that cost. However, as I noted at the beginning, it is of interest to explore decision-making areas other than that of the authorities.

For all these reasons, it is clear that there is no room for complacency and that institutions must act to achieve tighter cost control and to rationalise their procedures. Against a background of rising doubtful assets it seems essential to build up both the amount and quality of capital and to establish sound risk control mechanisms. Lastly, institutions should continuously carry out stress testing and develop contingency plans to anticipate what line of action to take in the face of different market situations. Regarding the supervisor, I believe there has been widespread recognition of the reliability and quality of Spanish banking supervision. Therefore this work should continue to cultivate a close relationship and permanent contact with institutions, but without relaxing the demands made of them. The last agent to which I wish to devote attention is households. In the current circumstances it is inevitable that households should regard the future with greater uncertainty and restrict their spending, stepping up their saving and reducing their level of indebtedness. The behaviour of households will be influenced by whether or not they are indebted and, if so, the weight of this debt burden on their current income. In the case of the more heavily indebted households (in proportion to income), the picture is more complicated since, to the prevailing uncertainty about the economic outlook may be added the tightening of financing conditions, which is largely a result of the financial turmoil.
Indeed, all financial sectors are impacted by market developments as the boundaries between financial activities are becoming increasingly blurred. More broadly, all competent financial authorities, central banks, supervisors and ministries of finance should strengthen their coordination mechanisms for managing a crisis impacting cross-border financial institutions. In Europe, an important step has been taken in this direction with the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the financial authorities of all EU Member States in June 2008, which established common principles, procedures and terminology to be used by all parties involved in a cross-border crisis. BIS Review 123/2008  5  Conclusion We are experiencing a very challenging and demanding episode of the market correction which started more than a year ago and was due to a significant underassessment and underpricing of risks in global finance. This fostered extremely high risk–taking behaviour, excessive leverage and a widespread use of toxic, obscure and abnormally sophisticated financial instruments. In this regard, global finance was potentially unstable before the start of the turbulence and this was mentioned publicly, particularly in 2006 and the first part of 2007, by a number of speakers, including myself. The sub-prime mortgage crisis has therefore played the role of a trigger but there was a good deal of explosive around. My experience of previous crises is that it is extremely important to analyse situations very carefully and lucidly and never to underestimate its gravity.

Jiří Rusnok: The future of monetary policy - what can we see as the dust has settled? Opening remarks by Mr Jiří Rusnok, Governor of the Czech National Bank, at the High-Level Economic Conference, Prague, 16 June 2019. * * * Ladies and gentlemen, dear guests, I wish you a good morning. It is my pleasure to welcome you all to this high-level conference on “The Future of Monetary Policy: What Can We See as the Dust Has Settled?” hosted by the Czech National Bank. This conference is organised as part of this year’s celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the introduction of our national currency – named the koruna – in 1919. Before I give the floor to the distinguished speakers, let me first make a few remarks that will set the stage for the upcoming event. During the past 100 years, our currency and the overall economic situation of our country has enjoyed times of economic prosperity, but also some more difficult periods. This alternation between good and bad times applies elsewhere. Before the outbreak of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008, it seemed that monetary policy had triumphed. Inflation in advanced countries and elsewhere had decreased to low and stable levels. The goal of price stability had been achieved. Central banks were using standard tools with well understood transmission mechanisms. The outbreak of the Great Recession suddenly changed this perspective. The GFC brought significant economic slack and deflationary tendencies to many countries. In response, central banks started using unconventional tools.
I have in mind here, financing models used in most Asian countries such as the Grameen Bank model in Bangladesh which has demonstrated that women’s potential to contribute towards poverty reduction can be unlocked through provision of finance at community level. Indeed the Grameen Bank model has also proved that women have a good habit of paying back their loans. It is also fitting that women’s potential to contribute to development should be acknowledged and their potential to drive change should be recognised. Although women are yet to gain equality, they are helping to move their families and communities out of poverty. With a little more support, so much more could be achieved. It is my hope that access to finance by women will be enhanced through this exhibition. I am however, pleased to note that, today, more financial institutions are providing financial services to women in Zambia. More women and girls are learning to read and write. We also see throughout the country that women are discovering a new level of economic independence. They’re contributing more to their families and communities. They’re gaining access to credit and jobs that can give them a decent standing of living. This is desirable and should be encouraged. As I conclude, let me extend my gratitude to all the participants and resource persons and commend all the institutions that have taken part to organise both the workshop and exhibition.

Meanwhile, LaunchGood, has raised USD9 million in over 20 countries and funded 1,300 social impact projects, ranging from disaster relief and humanitarian aid, to water and housing infrastructure in developing countries. In Malaysia, our Islamic financial institutions are in a good position to benefit from the growth multipliers that fintech offers. What is required is for the industry to invest in technology and talent to accelerate the adoption of technology. Key to making this a success is for the industry leaders and practitioners to transform their fears into familiarity; to embrace the digital transformation to re-engineer the entire organisation. In reimagining their businesses and viewing disruptive technologies not as a threat, but as an enabler, industry players can make the necessary operational, structural and cultural shifts. The tone has to be set from the top. The innovation agenda must be a boardroom priority, and Islamic financial institutions must be willing to allocate capital and resources to make this work. A further imperative to this is to inculcate and infuse a culture of innovation permeating throughout the organisation. The Islamic finance industry should adopt the motto of “dare to ideate” – to become founders and leaders of big ideas; to be able to synthesise the needs of customers; and to develop products to respond to those needs. Customised financial solutions can be achieved through fintech, with Shariah contracts as building blocks for innovation. We can start small and simple, with a view to iteratively improve and fine-tune to meet evolving needs of customers.
The greater degree of economic flexibility in the region in responding  BIS Review 11/2006  1  to shocks and the dynamic global conditions is a further feature that contributes towards strengthening the region's potential. While private consumption's contribution to domestic demand is becoming increasingly more significant in the region a renewed expansion in investment is also needed to create a more sustainable growth path. Significant initiatives are already underway to increase the contribution of private investment and secure new areas of growth. These include improving the investment climate and reducing the cost of doing business. Efforts would also continue to be on-going on the priorities in the region as countries have the potential to further expand the role of domestic demand. For several of the countries in the region, a significant boost to investment is expected to stem from an expansion in physical and social infrastructure as well as from research and development activities being relocated to Asia. On the financial front, the region's high savings rate and the pool of capital in the region for productive investments would be able to provide a boost to development of the region's financial markets. Strengthening the structure of the regional markets would facilitate the surplus savings to financing investment within the region. Significant progress has already been made in the Asian region in strengthening the financial sectors, in the banking system or the capital markets. This has increased the region's capacity to intermediate funds, especially within the region.

Fiscal uncertainty has, however, emerged as the clear and present danger facing the US economy. The partial deal in Congress earlier this month has prevented the economy from falling over the fiscal cliff. But three inter-related fiscal challenges remain. •  First, the deferred budget sequester or spending cuts that kick in from March this year. •  Second, the debt ceiling that needs to be raised, beyond just the next six months. •  Third, and most important, a medium-term deficit reduction deal. 4. As it is, the partial expiry of previous tax cuts and exemptions could already be causing a fiscal withdrawal of about 1–1½ percentage points of GDP. If Congress fails to reach an agreement, the automatic spending cuts could impose an additional drag of 0.4% of GDP. Europe: strengthening the fiscal union while fighting a crisis 5. Europe has fared less well. As of 2012, the Eurozone economies have recovered less than 60% of the output lost during the crisis. For the last two years, the Eurozone has been caught in a vicious cycle between weak sovereigns and weak banks. The crisis has exposed basic design flaws in the architecture of the European Monetary Union, chiefly the absence of a fiscal union. 6. The challenges facing European policymakers are not trivial. They have to put in place the structures and policies necessary to address the design flaws of the currency union, while at the same time fight a recurrent crisis of confidence in the financial markets.
Indeed, the new legislation states that the Central Bank shall, at no less frequent than quarterly intervals, publish reports on its monetary policy and monetary, exchange rate and foreign exchange developments and its measures in these areas. The Central Bank shall also issue an annual report in which it explains in detail its activities. In its annual report, the Bank outlines various other aspects of its operations and publishes a detailed itemised account of its operating expenses, more detailed, I believe, than any other institution in Iceland. To cite an example of the importance of transparency these days, in autumn 1999 the International Monetary Fund published guidelines for transparency of monetary policy which it firmly urged all member countries to adopt. The Central Bank of Iceland can definitely be said to fulfil these rules. By providing detailed descriptions of its policies and assessments of the economic and monetary situation and outlook, the Bank also contributes to professional and informed public debate on these issues. By the same token, greater responsibility is imposed on other commentators, since they have less scope for claiming lack of information. The Central Bank wholeheartedly welcomes professional public debate about the Bank and its policies, and takes part in such dialogue where it sees grounds for doing so. Lively, professional dialogue produces even greater understanding of the character and objectives of monetary policy. I hope to see students and teachers at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration becoming involved in these issues in the future.

This applies both to the European and the domestic spheres. The surveillance framework operating at the European level was mostly focused on the fulfilment of the fiscal targets embodied in the Stability and Growth Pact. However, this framework revealed itself insufficient and ultimately ineffective, both because it relied on nominal deficit thresholds – which masked fiscal vulnerabilities under the umbrella of a large cyclical increase in revenues- and because it was loosely applied. In several Euro area countries, Spain among them, the structural policies that could have set the basis for a more lasting and sustainable growth path were timid in a period when the economy was supported by a favourable environment. This is not, by the way, a European peculiarity: as we all know, structural policies tend to be implemented out of necessity, that is, not in the good, but in the difficult times. However, the narrative of the financial crisis in Spain somewhat differs from other developed countries. Our financial system was not exposed to the complex structured assets which were at the root of the financial crisis in 2007-2008. But, while we did not hold this kind of toxic assets, we have suffered the toxification of the housing sector assets as the crisis deepened. The freezing of the global financing markets that started in mid-2007 also disrupted our financing patterns (heavily dependent, as I have said, on external funds directed towards the housing sector).