samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
As I stated earlier, it is also crucial that public and private institutions endeavour to raise awareness of and draw attention to gender equality and sustainability. In this regard, the Banco de España has implemented an Interdepartmental Environmental Awareness and Sustainability Training Plan for all employees. This plan consists of a series of conferences, coinciding with the International Day of Climate Action on 24 October, focused on explaining and understanding climate change’s impact on our lives through different and complementary perspectives. 9  Allow me to conclude. Before this pandemic, the world was undergoing extraordinary change; unprecedented technological innovations, but also far-reaching social and structural changes thanks to women’s role in our economies and the policy drive to achieve gender parity in the workplace. With the outbreak of the pandemic, the work-life balance measures that organisations had been slowly and painstakingly introducing were imposed to safeguard health. These include new ways of working from home, managing teams and even contacting third parties. Starting a conversation by asking about the other person’s health and that of their family, friends and work colleagues is now an everyday occurrence. The pandemic has forced us to keep our distance, but in many cases it has brought us nearness and much-called-for flexibility. Yet in some cases it has reversed some of the headway made in terms of worklife balance.

Traders from both sides of the border are forced to carry cash and must first convert funds into United States Dollars from their respective countries and then into the domestic currency of the country they are purchasing goods or services from. By so doing, cross-border traders face many risks including theft, exchange losses and other conversion costs. Ladies and Gentlemen, although there have been some bilateral efforts towards formalising and facilitating small-scale cross-border trade in Southern Africa, these have not been  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  enough. For instance, Zimbabwe signed a memorandum of understanding with Malawi to facilitate informal trade, especially between small and medium-sized enterprises. Mozambique and Zambia also signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate the repatriation of currencies of the two countries that are accumulated by traders located along the common border areas. It is expected that this memorandum of understanding will be expanded to include Malawi. The lack of financial and payment services has not only hindered small-scale cross border trade but also led to the establishment and entrenchment of parallel currency markets at the borders. Needless to say, these are associated with vices such as counterfeiting, facilitating illegal trade, as well as enhancing cross-border money laundering activities. Moreover, to us monetary authorities, illegal cross-border local currency circulation creates the potential for complicating the conduct of monetary policy, especially if a significant amount of a country’s domestic currency is being used outside its jurisdiction.
In that respect, the strict separation between monetary and supervisory functions is instrumental in safeguarding against potential conflicts of interest between these two functions. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Moreover, finishing the repair process requires actions in other policy areas. At the European level, the most pressing is to complete the Banking Union. An effective Single Resolution Mechanism is particularly important, as it will further reduce the sovereign-bank nexus and thus work towards the elimination of fragmentation across national borders. But fixing the financial system is not a sufficient condition for economy recovery. Healthy banks can better intermediate between those who save and those who want to invest, and are thereby necessary for future growth. Yet, proper framework conditions need to be in place so that the right incentives to invest exist. For example, it is important that firms can flexibly adjust to changing economic conditions, and that excessive rents in sheltered sectors do not distort the allocation of capital. Creating such framework conditions is largely the responsibility of national policies. Let me therefore now turn to the national dimension of the reform process. Improving sustainability and growth At the time of the sovereign crisis, the most pressing preoccupation of national governments was to repair public finances and restore the trust of financial markets. Therefore, fiscal consolidation was necessarily their first priority, and the national reactions in this domain were both forceful and effective. Let me remind you of some key facts.

As a consequence, supervision should act as a source of integration rather than – as often was the case in the past – an additional cause of fragmentation. But some preliminary steps are needed before the SSM can operate in full. The first and most important precondition is full information about the balance sheets of the euro area banking sector. This is why much of 2014 will be devoted to a comprehensive assessment of the conditions of our banking sector. The Asset Quality Review (AQR) is a central building block in this assessment and a precondition to restore confidence in the banking system of the euro area. Transparency about banks’ balance sheets will help revive private investors’ interest in maintaining and increasing exposures to euro area banks. Indeed, expectations of a serious comprehensive assessment have already reinforced the positive trend in the financial markets. Looking forward, the strengthening of bank funding positions – both on the equity and on the debt side – that will result from the exercise will help support credit provision to productive sectors with clear benefits for economic growth in the euro area. The ECB is therefore also playing a role in the repair of the financial sector through its new supervisory function. However, there are clear limits to what the ECB can and should do. These limits are defined by the ECB mandate as enshrined in the Treaty.
Thus a negative number indicates a reduction in percentage allocation to equities, and may not indicate a reduction in total exposure to equities (if total flows have been large). Reallocation is calculated using data on quarterly flows into (or out of) equities in order to adjust for the impact of revaluation effects. The S&P 500 is smoothed by taking the growth of the 8 quarter average on the 8 quarter average a year earlier. 12  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Chart 7 Asset allocation of UK insurance companies and pensions funds Per cent 100 80  Chart 8 Portfolio share of equity of the UK DB PFs split by funding strength(a) Index; Dec 2005=100 140  Portfolio share of equities 70  120  60  100  50  80  40  20  60  30  0 87 89 91 93 95 97 99 01 03 05 07 09 11 13 UK equities Overseas equities UK corporate bonds UK government bonds Overseas bonds Mutual funds' shares Derivatives Other  40  60 40  Weakest funded (right-hand scale)  20 0  20  Strongest funded (right-hand scale) FTSE All-share, annual average (left-hand scale)  06  07  08  09  10  11  12  10 0  Source: ONS and Bank calculations  Source: Pension Protection Fund and Bank calculations  (a) Bonds includes money market instruments, medium and long term bonds. The split of overseas bonds by issuer is not available.

There is little reason to suppose that the authorities are likely to be any better than the private sector at finding the way forward. Nor is it obvious that national authorities have the locus or leverage to insist on a particular model. Much the same reservations would apply to any European level intervention. That said, what the public sector can contribute, in this area as in financial markets more generally, is a removal of barriers to competition, requirements on the provision of information and the easing of constraints on the effective functioning of the market. If consolidation does indeed take place, the public authorities may also have a role in ensuring that heavily concentrated market infrastructure providers do not exploit their position. But at a European level we are at present still some way from this situation. And internationally we need to work together, within the WTO and the IMF, as well as within the various international regulatory and professional bodies, to promote the global free movement of  BIS Review 48/2001  3  capital, because in this context – as in the case of free trade – the potential benefits are not confined to national or even regional boundaries but increase within wider international participation. Mr Chairman, we have come a long way in improving the effectiveness of our financial systems, and there are powerful forces at work pushing us in the right direction – including, within Europe, the introduction of the euro. But we still have a very long way to go.
Regarding cross-border trade settlement, in the first 11 months this year, payments from the Mainland to Hong Kong amounted to RMB 180 billion while payments from Hong Kong to the Mainland amounted to RMB 50 billion, resulting in a net inflow of RMB 130 billion to Hong Kong. These RMB funds remain in Hong Kong and constitute a main source of supply in the local RMB market. Of the RMB 50 billion paid from Hong Kong to Mainland enterprises, only about RMB 10 billion was obtained by conversion in Shanghai through the Clearing Bank. In November alone, the payment from Hong Kong to the Mainland under the trade settlement scheme reached RMB 22 billion. However, as the arrangement for conducting RMB conversions in Shanghai was suspended, enterprises in Hong Kong could only purchase RMB funds from the Hong Kong market. Given the abundant supply of RMB funds in the local market, the pricing of RMB funds in the Hong Kong offshore market and that in Shanghai were quite close to each other, with the differential between the two staying within 300 pips for most of the time in recent weeks. This shows that the offshore pool of RMB funds in Hong Kong is serving the function of supplying RMB funds to meet the demand from local enterprises, such that there is no need to rely heavily on the onshore conversion window in Shanghai for trade settlement.

Norman T L Chan: Latest developments of renminbi business in Hong Kong Briefing by Mr Norman T L Chan, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, on the latest developments of renminbi (RMB) business in Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, 23 December 2010. *  *  *  Good afternoon. Today I would like to provide an update on the latest developments of renminbi (RMB) business in Hong Kong. With the strong support from the Central Government and the relevant Mainland authorities, the development of RMB business in Hong Kong has been encouraging this year. Significant growth and progress have been seen in various areas, including cross-border trade settlement, deposits, bond issuance and the introduction of financial products in the second half of this year. The total amount of RMB deposits increased markedly from RMB 60 billion at the end of last year to RMB 220 billion in October and RMB 280 billion in November this year. Of these deposits, those from personal customers amounted to RMB 120 billion, with a total of 2.2 million accounts and an average deposit size of RMB 54,000. Deposits from corporate clients amounted to RMB 160 billion at the end of November, with 117,000 accounts and an average deposit size of RMB 1.3 million.
On the cost side of the ledger: the drag on growth that comes the rest of the time from forcing banks to fund more of their lending with capital rather than deposits. The result of this careful cost-benefit analysis is a goal for how resilient the largest part of the banking system should ordinarily be. It’s expressed in the severity of the economic scenario we expect banks to be resilient to. So great are the costs of not having enough capital in the banking system that the scenario is of a rare level of severity, akin to the financial crisis. That means a scenario in which: unemployment rises to over 9%; the output of the economy falls by nearly 5%, the global economy enters a recession deeper than the financial crisis and house prices fall by one third. To ensure they can keep lending through such a scenario, the major banks typically need to fund around 13.5% of their risk-weighted assets with their own (Tier 1) capital. We’re clear that if, in the future, the economy becomes a more fragile place (as, for example, debt levels rise) our stress scenarios will get tougher and the capital levels needed to pass them will increase. And if a downturn materialises, we’re clear that capital buffers that have been built up should be run down to absorb losses without cutting lending. Our resilience target will flex to the circumstances in a way that it could not had it been hardwired into legislation.

Through stress testing of major banks, it has boosted the resilience of the banking system. It has used those tests to deal with specific threats from pockets of credit growth in consumer credit and leveraged loans to companies. It has introduced measures to cap high loan-to-income mortgage lending. It has, through new tests, built greater resilience in the financial system to cyber attacks. And it has examined risks in the growing non-bank financial system so that they can be addressed if they become material, if necessary by changing the scope of regulation. 3  The post-crisis regulatory infrastructure also included a new Prudential Regulator for banks, insurance companies and designated investment companies (the Prudential Regulatory Authority of the Bank of England) and a resolution regime for failing banks, overseen by the Bank of England. For a full description of these functions, see the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Strategy. 4 The committee comprises the Bank’s Governor, 4 deputy Governors, the Executive Director for Financial Stability, the Chief Executive of the FCA, 5 external members appointed by the Chancellor and a representative of HM Treasury. 4  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  4  Legitimacy & accountability  It will be important that those in Parliament continue to recall the misery that prompted their predecessors to grant us our powers and the independence to use them. To abandon their predecessors’ good intent could inflict the same misery on some future generation.
The group will act with complete independence to gather information and interview local and foreign experts. The topics that the panel will be evaluating include the analytical framework and the powers available to the BCCh, its policy formulation process, communication and results, with special emphasis on the entity’s most recent years of operation. The final evaluation report will be presented in the institutional account the BCCh is due to submit to the Senate plenary in September 2019, which acquires a special connotation as the year marks the 30th anniversary of its granted autonomy. We hope that the panel will not only contribute a technical, 9  independent and well informed opinion of the Bank’s performance in the areas entrusted it by law, but also generate concrete proposals for improvement that we can include in our institution’s agenda. With this, I believe that we demonstrate our commitment to fulfill our responsibilities before the country on three levels. First, conducting an analysis as objective as possible of the prospects of the economy and their implications for monetary policy. Second, applying our resources to deepen the analysis in an area of crucial importance for the economy, while at the same time producing information that may be of deeper interest to public opinion, the academic world and public policies. Third, by generating mechanisms to strengthen our accountability before the citizens, through this Senate, and identify new possibilities for improvement in our work. Thank you.

The policy stemmed directly from the Lisbon Strategy that assumed the creation of a strong European economy that would be able to compete on the international market. Moreover, there were no specific activities in the banking sector to modernise payment systems. This induced the European Commission to act. The main document that stimulated development in that area was Regulation No. 2560/2001 of the European Parliament and the European Commission on cross-border payments in euro in the European Union that established coherent legal regulations for all payment services to enable the application of various solutions and provided uniform technological and business standards for suppliers of payment services. The Euroland’s banking community decided that the best way to fulfil requirements stipulated in the Regulation was to implement self-regulating mechanisms and to establish the European Payments Council, an inter-bank organisation that coordinates and supervises works on SEPA. SEPA will be an area where citizens, entrepreneurs and other parties will be able to make and obtain payments in euro in the territory of Europe – both cross-border payments and payments within the borders of the Member States – according to the same simple rules, legal regulations and obligations regardless of the geographical location of the citizens and entrepreneurs. The main aim of the works on SEPA, carried out by the European banking community, is to implement mechanisms for effective euro payments in Europe and to treat this area as a local market with all its consequences, including transaction completion time and fees (i.e.
4  BIS Review 158/2010  d’Italia in this domain, as shown in the paper by Angelini, Neri, and Panetta 12 which has been presented at this conference. I look forward to further research on this new dimension of macroeconomic policy. If research on new topics has some form of diminishing returns, the first good papers in this area will have huge visibility and numerous citations. I know that the brain power in this audience is first class. Let me tell you that if you ever dreamt of having an impact on the design and the implementation of economic policy, this is the time. Your inputs are badly needed ! 12  Paolo Angelini, Stefano Neri, and Fabio Panetta (2010), “Monetary and Macroprudential Policies”, Banca d’Italia, mimeo. BIS Review 158/2010  5

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The main source of the high growth rate of deposits in foreign currency continues to be the large inflows of remittances in foreign currency from emigrants. Under these conditions, credit to the economy increased by Lek 19.4 billion during 2004, from Lek 16.5 billion being projected in the monetary program. This implies an increase of credit to the economy by an average of Lek 1.6 billion monthly compared to year 2003. Credit to the economy constituted 8.4 percent of GDP, marking an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared to year 2003. Also, credit/deposit ratio reached 19 percent at the end of 2004, from 15.7 percent being in 2003. Banking system financing was done through purchasing Treasury bills and two-year bonds and constituted the largest weight of domestic financing during the year. Commercial banks and households increased the Treasury bills portfolios in comparison to the previous year, respectively by Lek 6.5 and 6.2 billion. Meanwhile, revenues from the Savings Bank’s privatization constituted a significant financing source, particularly during the second half of the year. BIS Review 38/2005  5  Exchange rate 2004 was associated with appreciating pressures for the Lek, impacted by country’s macroeconomic stability, rise of confidence in domestic currency and largest influence of seasonal effects. Compared to the previous year, the Lek was appreciated on average by 7.2 percent versus the euro and by 15.7 percent versus the dollar. The Lek appreciation is not a tendency observed only in 2004.

Gent Sejko: Conducting monetary policy when fiscal space is limited Speech by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, at the high-level seminar on “Rethinking monetary-fiscal policy coordination”, jointly organised by the Bank of Slovenia and the International Monetary Fund, Tirana, 20 May 2016. *  *  *  Dear Panel Moderator, My honorable fellow Panelists, I believe this seminar provides a perfect platform for exchanging insights on the coordination of monetary and fiscal policies. This issue is quite topical from the perspective of challenges central banks are facing today. Before going into more detail on the topic of this panel, I would like to share some thoughts with you regarding the coordination of monetary and fiscal policies. The price stability mandate of the central bank and their operational independence does not lessen the need of effective coordination between monetary and fiscal policies. At a strategic level, the foremost objective of the macroeconomic policy is to achieve sustainable growth, in a context of price stability and a viable external account. This goal requires the contribution of both the fiscal and the monetary policies, within their respective domains, as well as a fair degree of coordination amongst them. On a macro scale, a balanced policy mix and an effective policy coordination requires: –  Policy sustainability: monetary and fiscal policies need to be on a sustainable path.
We start from a position in which inflation is in fact running - and has been running for some months slightly below the Government’s 2½% target. The November figure was 2.2% and within this goods price inflation was running at around only ½%, while retail services price inflation was running at nearly 4%. On Europe’s HICP measure, inflation in November was running at 1.3%. In part this out-turn reflects the abnormal international developments I have already discussed. The slowdown in the world economy reduced external demand in the UK. Weak world demand was 3  BIS Review 5/2000  accompanied initially, too, by falling commodity and manufacturing input prices. And sterling’s strong exchange rate had a direct, dampening, impact on our domestic price level. It is clear that world demand has now started to strengthen and commodity prices generally have stopped falling. And the oil price has already recovered strongly - which may benefit the Scottish economy but puts upward pressure on inflation. But sterling’s exchange rate remains uncomfortably strong. Looking ahead, there are a number of unusual factors that might help to hold the rate of inflation down, at least in the short term. Some of these are one-off administrative measures rather than broader economic influences: they include the unusually large price reductions imposed by utilities regulators to come into effect in the spring as well as the Chancellor’s decision to end automatic over-indexation of excise duties on fuel and tobacco.

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