samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Closer coordination will be increasingly important to avoid fragmentation in regulatory frameworks and improve the surveillance of risks to global financial stability. As lessons from previous crises should teach us, we would be well served to ensure that the growth of Islamic finance – on a global scale – is well supported by the strengthening of our collective capacity to understand, monitor and manage the attendant risks. Conclusion In concluding, Islamic finance, through its emphasis on risk-sharing for the attainment of socio-economic goals based on the objectives of Shariah, provides the discipline that enhances the prospect of strengthening the link between finance and the real economy, thus contributing towards overall financial stability. With the global economy now on the recovery path, Islamic finance offers enormous potential in supporting a more inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Developing and emerging economies in particular stand to reap the largest benefits from this potential. To fully realise this potential, regulatory priorities in strengthening financial stability taking into consideration the specificities of Islamic finance will ensure its continued resilience and its potential to effectively service the functioning of economies and the economic wellbeing of societies. 6  BIS central bankers’ speeches

In many countries the instrumental rate moved down from 10% in 1995 to Stage Three’s initial rate, which practice was set already on 22 December 1998 when all the future euro countries lowered their instrumental rates to 3%. To ensure that the fiscal goals enshrined in the convergence criteria would continue to guide policy in the monetary union, in 1997 the EU member states concluded the Stability and Growth Pact. This Pact’s best-known requirement is that a general government deficit is not to exceed 3% of GDP and that if it does, sanctions will be applied. I should like to remind you, however, that the Pact is also intended to promote a balanced development of government finances over the business cycle. All EU member states are required to present annual stability programmes (in the case of non-euro countries, convergence programmes) that are first discussed in the Economic and Financial Committee and later in the Ecofin Council. In addition to these processes for testing that every country adheres to the rules, Broad Economic Policy Guidelines are drawn up annually. This document can be said to represent a common general approach to economic policy - a budget statement for the EU area. Last but not least, there are processes for guiding countries along the road towards creating more efficient markets for goods, services, capital and labour. These are complex issues and the member states tend to differ considerably in their initial positions as well as their attitudes.
Income from employment normally varies in the course of a lifetime. Earnings are low when we are young, rising in our middle years, before falling again as we reach retirement age. Many people raise loans in early adulthood, repay their loan and build up positive net wealth as they reach middle age, then draw on their savings towards the end of their lives. This results in consumption that is more evenly spread over a lifetime than implied by the flow of annual income. A company’s investment choices also involve the choice between present and future consumption. Owners may give priority to present consumption by taking out dividends, or they can invest profits in the company and thereby lay the basis for larger profits later. By placing capital at the disposal of others, in other words by saving, one’s own consumption is postponed. People require compensation for this, both because human beings are impatient and because there is a certain probability we may not live to see the future. The interest rate provides this compensation. If we want to use our money for consumption now or to finance investments by raising loans, the interest rate is the price we must pay in order to do so. The interest rate is therefore a key variable in our choice between consumption now or in the future. Interest rates are the terms at which money or goods today may be traded off for money or goods at a future date. The interest rate is also the price of money.

If market participants expect prices to continue to fall, the real interest rate may be high since the nominal interest rate cannot fall below zero. Households and enterprises may then find it profitable to increase saving pending a decline in prices, which leads to further fall in demand. The real debt burden increases as a result of the fall in prices. This curbs demand. Deflation is often accompanied by a decline in asset prices. This reduces banks’ collateral value for loans and may reduce banks’ total lending. Deflation can be spread across countries. Even though Norway is not experiencing deflation, we see that increased imports from low-cost countries are curbing inflation in Norway. Inflation in Norway is now low. It is primarily developments in prices for imported consumer goods that have pushed down the rise in consumer prices adjusted for tax changes and excluding energy products (CPI-ATE). The low rise in prices reflects the appreciation of the krone through 2002 and the low rate of inflation abroad. The rise in prices for domestically produced goods and services has also slowed, particularly prices for goods influenced by world market prices. As a result of the fall in inflation rates globally, key monetary policy rates are now low in the major economies. Monetary policy has also been eased considerably in the US and the euro area over the past few years as a result of the economic downturn. Norway’s monetary policy must be adapted to a global economy that is marked by unusually low interest rates.
Speaking as chair of the Financial Stability Board’s working group on the resolution of crossborder firms, I can update you on the work already in train. Basically for the top roughly 25 banks and dealers, the authorities will work with them over the next 6-9 months to produce recovery and resolution plans. The effort will build on the existing supervisory colleges, but typically at a more senior level, and involving resolution authorities and central banks as well as line supervisors. After official level exchanges, there will be engagement with those firms, also at a senior level (say group CFO). The desired outputs will cover two things. First, recovery plans for “de-risking” a group where it can and should be maintained as a going concern. Second, a resolution plan when a firm needs to be wound down and put to rest, but with essential economic functions maintained somehow. The FSA has explained their contribution to the exercise. No one should think that this will be easy; or that anyone in the official sector is naïve about that. It will, in fact, be formidably difficult. The process is, for that very reason, designed to flush out the issues, so that they can be properly debated and reviewed.

This development, whether we like it or not and depending on who we are, is a reality that we have to relate to. In this structural development in the payment market, there will be several challenges for commercial players, as well as for those of us working on the public side. Evolvement is seldom a gradual and smooth process. This gives rise to a number of interesting issues that we have the chance to address here today. It also explains the conference agenda. Three topics for the conference The first topic concerns the current development. How do the different market players view the evolving ecosystem? Are the banks hurt or do they benefit from the entry of non-banks as a result of an increase of payment traffic through their systems and between their accounts? Are all market players a big happy family where everyone cooperates with everyone else or is it razor-sharp competition, a dog-eat-dog market? Who, if anyone, is gaining the upper hand? I’m looking forward to learning more about this type of issue in the first session. The second topic concerns the regulatory environment. The central role of the retail payments market for social welfare ensures that the authorities will want to promote an efficient outcome. How to balance cooperation and competition? How to ensure a level playing field and how to protect consumers? For example, is the current supervision 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  sufficient or will we have to sharpen it in the future?
Gent Sejko: Modernisation of retail payment systems in Albania Welcome address by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, at the Conference on the "Modernisation of retail payment systems in Albania", Tirana, 21 June 2018. * * * Dear Deputy Prime Minister Dear media representatives, Dear participants and colleagues, Welcome to this conference, whose topic, I would say, is a challenge and promotes the modernisation of the retail payments in Albania. The Bank of Albania has constantly noted in its communications that the safe and efficient development of payment systems is a key objective not only to support monetary policy implementation and safeguard financial stability, but also to serve as an important tool for formalised and sustainable economic development. In addition to the focus on payment systems – as a fundamental pillar for the functioning of financial markets and the economy in general – the Bank of Albania is paying increasingly more attention to their development from the perspective of financial inclusion. The main goal in this regard is the broad use of payment instruments in the everyday life of citizens. This new way of development aims to identify and satisfy the needs of the smallest component of the economy – households and enterprises.

For these reasons, fiscal policy is set so that the public finances follow a sustainable medium-term path. This commitment to budgetary prudence is enshrined into the net debt rule and the rule that public borrowing should finance investment and not current expenditure. In Hamlet, the advice of Polonius to his son was, “neither a borrower nor a lender be”. If we update Shakespeare’s dictum to “neither a borrower nor a lender be over the economic cycle except to finance public investment”, then you have the spirit of the government’s fiscal policy rules, if not the same elegance of language. So fiscal policy is set on an annual basis to maintain a sustainable path for the public finances in the medium-term. Monetary policy is set month-by-month to meet the inflation target. It is no part of the government’s responsibility to make life easier for the MPC by manipulating fiscal policy to manage the economic cycle. What matters to the MPC is the overall fiscal stance, and that it remains on a sustainable basis. Decisions on that are made once a year in the Spring Budget. In the UK, coordination between monetary and fiscal policy works well. 4. Conclusions  In conclusion, therefore, I do not offer any simple solutions to the imbalances between different parts of the British economy. Fiscal policy is not an alternative to the month-by-month determination of monetary policy. And interest rates cannot target both inflation and asset prices, whether the exchange rate or share prices or house prices. Nor should they.
These timely, coordinated and comprehensive set of measures, were ultimately aimed both at containing the adverse economic impact and at preserving monetary and financial stability, as a precondition for the future recovery of the economy. I believe we got the balance right. So far, Albania managed to avoid both a spike in unemployment and major business failures, despite the financial difficulties they faced. Furthermore, our financial system remains solid, with little volatility across financial markets, low lending rates, a stable exchange rate, and a liquid and well capitalized banking sector. Just as importantly, our stress-tests indicate the banking sector’s resilience to additional shocks. Under these premises, I believe the Albanian economy enjoys sufficient preconditions for a gradual recovery. However, challenges remain. For the remainder of my speech, I would like to briefly share with you our perspective on them. *** Ladies and Gentlemen, While most baseline economic projection scenarios remain positive, it’s clear the ongoing global recovery remains fragile. Policy challenges still present, both in the short and in the mid to long run. The first challenge is to ensure the sustainability of the ongoing recovery and to safeguard it against downside risks, such as potential second lockdown. At the Bank of Albania we believe the overall policy stance should remain accommodative over the foreseeable future. Any policy normalization should be coordinated and data-dependent. A coordinated normalization means an ideal sequencing of macroprudential policy stance first, followed by fiscal and monetary policy later.

Thomas Jordan: The significance of academic research and teaching for the Swiss model for success Summary of a speech by Mr Thomas Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Dies academicus, University of Bern, Bern, 1 December 2018. * * * The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank's website (www.snb.ch). The success of Switzerland in recent decades has largely been driven by the strong performance of its education system, which is crucial for economic prosperity, social cohesion and equality of opportunity overall. The Swiss National Bank (SNB), too, sets great store by a good education system, including universities that can hold their own against international competition. Many of the staff recruited by the SNB are destined for roles in which a university degree is a prerequisite. In addition, the SNB maintains close ties with the academic world, so that the latest related research findings can be incorporated into monetary policy decision-making. The competition of ideas stimulates and creates incentives for higher-quality monetary policy. This pursuit of excellence in academic education should not just be aimed at research, however; it should also target teaching. Experience has shown that foundation courses have a lasting effect on students' attitudes to certain topics. Teaching lays the basis for subsequent academic specialisation and career choice. As role models, professors carry a heavy responsibility.
They are chosen not because they are probable outcomes, but precisely because they are improbable contingencies against which it would be useful to safeguard, consistent with the Hippocratic oath. One adverse scenario is that the economy could stall in its recovery, deflationary forces could set in and monetary policy could be trapped for a protracted period at the zero lower bound. This is not so much secular stagnation as secular deflation. And you do not have to look too hard to find real-world examples. The most widely studied is, of course, the Japanese experience since the bursting of its bubble in the early 1990s. In the quarter-century since, nominal GDP in Japan has barely budged. And while real GDP growth in Japan has averaged 0.7% per year since 1997, this has been offset by a persistent fall in prices of, on average, over 1% per year. Similar deflationary concerns, albeit on a lesser scale, have been voiced recently in the euro-area. So how great are these risks in the UK today? At least to my ear, the mood music is different. From its trough, real GDP in the UK has risen by 7% and nominal GDP by 19%. UK real GDP has risen at or above trend for each of the past four quarters. It is expected to continue  4  Varian (2014), Tuckett et al (2014). 5  For example, the Blue Brain project is setting out to reconstruct the brain piece by piece by building a virtual version in a supercomputer (see http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/page-52063.html).

Such expectations are even greater on Islamic finance given that the professed values of this industry are driven by the principles of Shariah which promote fairness, equality and justice. It is from this perspective that Islamic finance practitioners are duty-bound to observe the norms of high ethical conduct to uphold the values and the sanctity of Shariah. The need is even more now, given the increasing complexities faced by Islamic finance brought about by more competition and evolving regulatory requirements, more offerings of sophisticated products and growing cross-border activities. In Malaysia, it has always been our priority from the beginning to develop talent in Islamic finance as we recognise that quality talent is a crucial prerequisite for the continued success of the industry. There has been significant investment in capacity building, in line with our strategic approach in realising the visions of talent development outlined in the Financial Sector Master Plan and the Financial Sector Blueprint. To elevate the next stage of growth would require talents with different levels of technical competency and capabilities. The knowledge of yesterday might be useful for tomorrow, but more likely, would not be sufficient to meet future challenges. It is with this realisation that we should strategically implement a plan of action to develop true professionals who would lead the industry to the next stage of development, and recognised and respected as authorities in their chosen fields. These professionals should produce results that exceed expectations. They should also possess the highest degree of integrity in personal and business dealings.
Specifically, the primary balance of the public sector is targeted to shift from a deficit of 2.75% of GNP in 1999 to a surplus of 2.25% of GNP in 2000. This primary surplus will increase further to 3.7% of GNP in 2001, and will remain around that level in 2002 as well. Most of the measures needed to achieve an improvement of over 5% in the public sector primary balance in the year 2000 have already been taken. It will be recalled that these measures included increasing the rates of the VAT and of the withholding tax on bank deposits and repo transactions by two percentage points; increasing the rate of withheld taxes on income from fixed assets and self employment by 5 percentage points; imposing a windfall tax on interest earned on government securities; and various one-off measures, including raising the rates of personal income taxes, corporate taxes, and property and motor vehicle taxes. These revenue measures were accompanied by spending cuts as well. For example, the social security reform law passed by the parliament last fall is expected to save 0.5% of GNP in social security expenditures in 2000. As a result of the improvement in the primary balance, and the increase in privatization receipts, some of which can be used to retire public debt, the cash debt-to-GNP ratio is expected to level off at around 24% this year and to begin a gradual decline in coming years. Privatization proceeds are expected to reach $ 17.7 billion over the program period.

The Singapore Diversity Action Committee found that the SGX-listed companies saw 10.2% of board seats held by women in 2015, a notable increase from 7.6% in the previous year; with large companies leading the growth. However, if we compare to other centres like the UK and Hong Kong, the women’s representation on boards is 26.1% and a slightly higher 11.5% respectively. 5. The FWA Gender Survey, results for which will be discussed in depth later, corroborates these findings. While we are heartened that the women participation numbers are healthy at the lower levels, we need to remain focused on encouraging the contribution of women at all levels, and especially at the more senior positions. 6. Singapore’s greatest asset is its people, and developing talent must be a top priority. In MAS, we place great emphasis on talent development, progression and retention in the industry. You may know that we have recently formed the Financial Sector Tripartite Committee (FSTC), which I co-chair with Mr Patrick Tay, Assistant Secretary-General, National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). FSTC brings together the industry associations, government and labour movement, to foster a financial sector workforce that is versatile and well-equipped to seize the opportunities and adapt to the changing needs of the financial services industry. Our overall objective is to build a financial sector that not only reinforces Singapore’s position as a major international financial centre, but most importantly, one that provides good jobs for Singaporeans. 7. Allow me to elaborate on our approach. 8.
The current environment of low inflation and relatively stable exchange rate offer a good opportunity for lowering commercial banks lending interest rates. Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Zambia’s external position continues to score remarkable improvements as reflected in the build-up of gross international reserves to 2 months of import cover in 2006 from 1.6 months of import cover in 2005. Furthermore, the preliminary assessment is that Zambia’s surplus trade balance increased to US $ million in 2006 from a trade surplus of US $ million in 2005. Similarly, the current account deficit as a percentage of GDP, excluding grants, reduced from 11.8% in 2005 to 2.3% in 2006. This improvement has been due to increased export receipts arising from record high copper prices and increased export volumes. In addition, the historic debt relief received in 2006 and the increased budget support from our cooperating partners has helped to strengthen the external position. Preliminary information indicates that the country’s external debt position stood at US $ million as at end of December 2006 , a reduction of about 87% from the end-2005 debt stock of US $ billion. BIS Review 17/2007  1  In 2006, the foreign exchange market was characterized by general depreciation of the Kwacha against major currencies. In order to moderate exchange rate volatility and maintain stability in the external value of the Kwacha, the Bank of Zambia intervened by way of purchasing and selling foreign exchange.

On the prospect of global economic recovery, the consensus forecasts of world growth for 2009 have been continuously revised downward as the severity of the financial crisis hits the financial markets and the real sectors of industrialized economies. The latest IMF forecast expects the global economy to be stagnant this year and some economies in Asia to record negative growth. BIS Review 15/2009  1  As a result, it is most likely that international trade and investment cannot be a major driver of growth for a large number of economies. Intra-regional trade, which has strong ties in Asia, is also likely to decelerate. Most economies will have to turn inwards to look for domestic demand as a source of growth. This is why room for policy maneuver and domestic confidence are important at this juncture. Amid the tremendous challenges that we face, I am cautiously optimistic that Thailand will be able to weather the storm relatively well. Allow me to share with you the reasons behind this. First, the growth momentum of domestic demand has been cushioned by supportive monetary and fiscal policies, and declining costs of production. As Excellencies have already followed recent policy initiatives, there continues to be room for the Government to pursue fiscal initiatives for stimulus and social safety net protection as the public debt is low, accounting for about 37 percent of GDP.