samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Conversion arrangement for trade settlement in 2011 Following the substantial expansion of the geographical coverage of the cross-border RMB trade settlement scheme in June this year, the amount of cross-border RMB trade settlement has grown rapidly, from a monthly average of about RMB 4 billion in the first half of the year to about RMB 30 billion each month in August and September, and close to RMB 68 billion in October. Under such circumstances, the amount of RMB purchased by the Participating Authorized Institutions (Participating AIs) through the Clearing Bank in the China Foreign Exchange Trading System in Shanghai increased notably in October, and the conversion arrangement concerned was suspended in late October. In response, the HKMA promptly introduced a number of measures, and the RMB market in Hong Kong has been operating orderly and smoothly to date. As regards the conversion arrangement for 2011, after discussions with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the HKMA consider appropriate to introduce certain refinements to the arrangement for the conversion of RMB conducted by Participating AIs for their customers in relation to cross-border trade settlement.

These figures show not only that the absolute level of the euro area’s deficit is half what it is elsewhere, but also that the pace of fiscal consolidation is actually faster. While these efforts are absolutely crucial, there are concerns that too abrupt an adjustment in public finances will be detrimental to growth and, ultimately, to fiscal consolidation itself. In the current circumstances facing Europe, I believe these concerns are misplaced. We have to look at the counterfactuals: delaying consolidation would expose our economies to even greater risks. At current debt levels, economic agents are very “Ricardian” and would react to fiscal permissiveness by delaying their own private expenditure. Financial markets would continue to impose very punitive interest rates on our countries to compensate for the uncertainty in the fiscal outlook. Overall, the confidence and financial benefits of fiscal consolidation far outweigh its negative effects on effective demand in the short run. In addition, everyone knows that there are ways to boost growth strongly and durably even in times of fiscal consolidation: through structural reforms. Here as well, the progress already made in many countries is impressive. In recent history, European economies have never reformed so extensively in such a brief period of time. I could cite many examples: the labour market reform in Spain and now in Italy, the pension reforms in Italy and France, privatisations, public wage decreases in Ireland, etc. Some positive effects from these measures are immediate, but naturally, most of the impact on competitiveness and growth will take time to materialize.
Svante Öberg: The Riksbank and the Swedish economy Speech by Mr Svante Öberg, Deputy Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, at a meeting of SIMRA, the Swedish Society of Business Analysts, Stockholm, 5 October 2006. *  *  *  I would first like to thank you for the invitation to this lunch meeting. Today I intend to speak about monetary policy and wage formation. This is a very topical subject, particularly given that most of the collective wage agreements in the labour market are due to be renegotiated next year and that wage formation has such significance for developments in inflation and the stability of the Swedish economy. Wage formation has functioned much better over the past 10-15 years than it did during the 1970s and 1980s and it is essential that this good development can continue. I will divide my speech into five parts: First a section on how monetary policy is conducted, followed by a section containing a long-term perspective on economic developments, and then a section on how wage formation has changed, a section on the conditions for wage bargaining and finally I will conclude with a summary. Allow me to begin by describing how we work at the Riksbank. How monetary policy is conducted In Sweden we now conduct monetary and exchange rate policy based on inflation targeting and a floating exchange rate. This is different from the decades up to autumn 1992 when we had a fixed exchange rate as target.

Repeated crises and poor support from inflation expectations did not give good results in terms of production growth and real wages. The experiences of the past 10-15 years have been good, however. Fiscal and monetary policy have laid the foundations for better economic growth and wage formation has improved. The social partners have actively contributed to this good development. The results are positive. Growth has been high and real wages have risen, despite the moderate increases in nominal wages. It is of course extremely important that this positive development can continue over the coming years. The economic conditions for next year’s wage bargaining rounds are good and there thus is every reason to believe that wage formation will continue to function well. However, we will of course closely follow developments. The contribution that the Riksbank can make is to conduct a monetary policy aimed at ensuring that inflation and inflation expectations develop in accordance with our target. This in turn means that the social partners can continue to sign agreements based on the assumption that the inflation target will be met a couple of years ahead. Judging from the surveys we make of inflation expectations, monetary policy in this respect has a very high level of credibility. It is the task of myself and my colleagues on the Executive Board to ensure that this remains the case. 4  BIS Review 93/2006  1. Inflation differential rel.
As we recognize in the sensitivity and risk scenarios of this MP Report, this is one possible outcome and its implications for the economy should be carefully monitored. While this is a matter in progress that we must follow closely, inflation has remained high for a long period of time and continues to be a complex and high-impact problem. The costs of this situation are evident. We have all felt the effects of rising prices in our daily lives, and a part of the population has suffered the hardest. Inflation introduces risks and distorts the information contained in prices, thus affecting investment, growth and employment. It is not possible to contemplate sustained growth in employment and activity if inflation is not kept under control. Therefore, bringing inflation back to the 3 percent target is an unavoidable task. I want to insist that, even if total inflation is on a downward path and will soon return to single-digit figures, the problem has not been solved. The convergence of inflation to 3% has not yet been consolidated and as long as it remains above that figure, the task of the Central Bank will not be complete. The causes of inflation have been discussed at length. The main one was the excessive increase in spending that led to the liquidation of social security savings and across-the-board fiscal transfers. In addition, there was the pandemic and its consequences on the local economy and in global production chains, plus the effects of the war in Ukraine.

Digital payments could entail greater data on users’ identities and transactions being centrally visible. The data generated could have huge opportunities for the detection and prevention of financial crime, but this must be balanced with the risk of surveillance into private financial matters. These questions, as well as issues of encouraging inclusion and promoting competition, are not ones for central banks and regulators alone to answer. They go the heart of how we use money and who should be responsible for safety and security. There needs to be a wider debate between policy makers, governments and society as a whole. 9  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  9  Conclusion  We have reached the point in the cycle of innovation in payments where it is essential that we set the standards and thus the expectations for how innovation will take effect. It should not happen the other way round, with the standard setting playing catch up. The answer is not to strangle innovation, and it does therefore require a strong dialogue between the parties, which I think we have. It also requires the sort of thoughtful input that Brookings scholars have made. If I can end with one overarching point, I think the public expects its payments to carry the assurance of value that comes with money. At this point, my mother would have said firmly to me, “Thank you for that statement of the blindingly obvious”.
Closing address At the end, let me thank the colleagues from the EBRD for the highly insightful presentations on the state of the economy and the main challenges of the WB region as well as the main findings of the Transition Report, which primarily focuses on digitalization. This does not come as a surprise knowing that digitalization has been significantly boosted during the pandemics, bringing a number of benefits to the societies, including support for faster transition and income convergence. Despite the efforts, income gap of the Western Balkan economies in comparison with the EU still remains wide - regional income is only about 38% of the European income. This largely correlates with the level of productivity in the region that significantly lags behind the EU productivity. And, the increase in productivity can be achieved only by structural and institutional reforms, including digitalization that can lead to more efficient allocation of resources. Thank you. 3/3  BIS - Central bankers' speeches

The average ownership share in a listed European company is now around 2.5 percent, which is twice the ownership share on other continents. Almost 2 percent of the fund is invested in Italy. The share invested in emerging markets is growing, as these markets develop. Over the past couple of years, we have started investing in Slovenia, Ghana and Mauritius, to provide three examples. At the end of 2014, 10 percent of the fund was invested in emerging markets. Still, close to 80 percent of the fund is invested in North America and Europe, where markets are largest and the most advanced. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Through the fund’s investments in equities and bonds, we seek to ensure broad exposure to global equity and bond markets. In the management mandate, the Ministry of Finance has defined public stock and bond indices, which are used to benchmark our performance. These benchmarks are based on the FTSE and Barclays indices. These indices are constructed to meet the needs of a typical investor. As pointed out earlier, the oil fund is not a typical or average investor. Rather, the fund has certain distinguishing characteristics. The investment strategy seeks to exploit these characteristics to improve the overall balance between risk and return. Our portfolio will therefore deviate from the index along a number of different dimensions: •  First, the index providers adjust for so-called free float. The free float of a company represents the portion of a company’s shares that are readily available for trading.
In common with other central banks, the Bank of England has a number of tools designed to provide backstop liquidity to banks under a range of scenarios. But in recent years, financial intermediation via non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) – what we used to call ‘shadow banks’ – has increased, in part because of greater regulation of the core banking system following the global financial crisis. Of course, the main responsibility for managing the liquidity and other exposures of these institutions lies with the institutions themselves, within an appropriate regulatory and supervisory structure.19 But as we have learnt somewhat painfully over recent decades in a variety of jurisdictions, occasions can arise where the systemic nature of liquidity risks make it difficult, if not impossible, for individual institutions to attain the resilience and robustness they need. Central banks have therefore begun to discuss the need for additional backstops. In particular, they have considered whether the need for asset purchases to address dysfunction in the markets where NBFIs operate has risen relative to the need to provide liquidity to standard banking counterparts for central banks. Since asset purchases implemented in this context work in concert with changes in Bank Rate, they naturally take place when those interest rate changes are taking place.20 In other words, such asset purchases would naturally happen when Bank Rate is away from its effective lower bound, and retains the flexibility to move in both directions.

Therein lies an important lesson I would like to share with colleagues and friends in the process of developing their bond markets. Industrialized countries have been in a position to promote and sustain the development of their bond markets because of the continuity and predictability of supply. In our case, due to restrictions on management and investment of the government’s treasury balance, the government understandably has been unwilling to issue securities when the treasury balance is high. This causes discontinuity in the supply of bonds. At the same time, because the treasury balance could not be invested to earn a return, there is a cost in terms of interest expense on those bonds issued against no revenue proceeds. Bond issuance has to be done on a regular basis, irrespective of the size of the treasury balance. But it may be difficult to explain politically why it should become necessary to maintain a higher-than-necessary treasury balance with borrowed money. Proposals are on the way to fine-tune the current legal framework, to permit greater flexibility in the management of treasury balance, while not compromising the discipline of budget finance. BIS Review 30/2000  2  Turning now to the secondary market. This is an area where a central bank can become more active and can make a more significant contribution than in the primary market. To date, substantial progress has been made with regard to the basic rules and regulations to govern both market participants and trading practices.
Specifically, in our case, they do not always draw a distinction between regional and central governments, or between the government and the opposition. What they see is, simply, Spain. Taking these lessons on market behaviour to heart is very important for all countries, but all the more so in a country such as Spain which, owing to the systematic and growing build-up of current account deficits since 1996, has had to resort to external financing. Accordingly, it is vital to transmit confidence to those who finance us. We’re now moving in the right direction. In the space of three years we’ve moved from a current account deficit of around 10% of GDP to one below 5% this year. And in the case of the budget deficit, we’ll see a decline from over 11% last year to 6% next year. Once the adjustment is over, the Spanish economy will once again outgrow the biggest economies in the euro area, as foreseen by most international institutions. Yet we should not be complacent, but carry on pushing structural reforms through. You’ll have noted that the markets behave like people: sometimes they give reasonable advice, sometimes they do so late, sometimes they make mistakes, and sometimes they have a short memory. And they waver between greed and fear, depending on whether they’re preoccupied with returns or with risk. We’re now witnessing a “flight from risk”. But you’ll no doubt recall the frenzied “search for yield” on financial markets worldwide in the decade prior to the crisis.

Philip H Penn: Enhancing and strengthening banking supervisory capabilities in Pacific countries Opening remarks by Mr Philip H Penn, Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Samoa, at the Pacific Regional Banking Supervision Seminar, Apia, Samoa, 23-25 October 2007. *  *  *  Mr Andrew Milford, Banking Supervision Advisor from the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre; Distinguished Resource Persons; Ms Elizabeth Roberts, Director of the Financial Stability Institute (FSI); Messrs Graham Johnson and Chris Gaskell from the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA); Mr Kim Norris, Director, International Advisory Group, OSFI, Canada; Deputy Governors; Participants; Ladies and Gentlemen. As the host for this year’s Regional Seminar and the Annual Meeting of the Association of Financial Supervisors of Pacific Countries (AFSPC), I am very pleased and honored, on behalf of the Governor and Staff of the Central Bank of Samoa, to extend to you all a very warm welcome. We are very happy to see and meet again some familiar faces. And for those of you who are here on your first visit, a special warm welcome to Samoa and we hope you have time to spare to enjoy the Paradise of the Pacific. You have certainly arrived at the time when the streets of Apia are back to normal as compared to a few weeks ago when we experienced unusual busy traffic due to the influx of tourists and overseas sports people, who came to enjoy and participate at the 10th South Pacific Games which we hosted last month.
There is a growing momentum in scaling up the green agenda on a global basis, with countries such as Denmark, South Korea, Finland and Germany already embarking on green technology movements in their respective countries. Since 2007, the worldwide market for green technology has grown on an average of 12% annually, and is now worth over EUR2 trillion. By 2025, it is forecasted to double to EUR4.4 trillion. The global market for renewable energy namely wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) and biofuels has grown by more than 30% in the recent few years and is estimated to reach nearly $ billion by 2021 . Economies that have  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  strategically invested in the green technology sector are already reaping the benefits of the transition to green initiatives. Germany, for example, has a green industry growing at an annual average of 12% since 2007 and a global market share of 15%. Green technology companies contributed 11% of its GDP and employing 1.4 million workers. In the case of the solar energy sector, Malaysia is now one of the top producers in PV manufacturing and this industry has generated direct foreign investment of over RM12 billion and created over 10,000 skilled and well paid jobs . Green technology offers specific solutions for pressing ecological and social challenges, and for this reason it is expected to continue to gain global importance.

While the funding of green technology projects from conventional banking is encouraging, the same cannot be said of Islamic banks, based on the latest data available. The approved GTFS projects indicate that only two projects have received financing from two Islamic banks in 2013, compared to the past two years, where six and seven projects were funded by Islamic banks in 2012 and 2011 respectively, Moving ahead, due to the increasingly complex, diverse and rapidly-changing nature of green technology, there is a need to develop new and innovative financial solutions to facilitate the growth of green technology companies. The Islamic banks need to respond to these needs or risk missing the opportunities brought about by the green technology revolution. Of late, greater use of equity-based models in Islamic financial solutions has been observed. This includes participatory or equity based contracts such as Mudarabah and Musharakah that support entrepreneurial ventures. In Malaysia, the adoption of these contracts has increased from 1.4% in 2008 to 5.2% in 2012. The nature of these contracts provides immense opportunities for Islamic banks to leverage on the ‘green certified’ SMEs to use participatory contracts which advocate profit and risk sharing between banks and the borrowers. The Mudarabah contract can be modeled for various financing purposes for the SMEs, such as for one-off project financing, new start-up enterprises, investment funds and sukuk structure. The Musharakah structure is applicable for private equity and venture capital  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  investments.
Through the themes and art embodied in its design, the national currency remains a faithful herald of the development, culture and history of a country. Thanks to these attributes, the currency is in itself a significant element of the national identity. The theme of the current series of Albanian banknotes, created more than 20 years ago, features important historical periods of the Albanian nation, and prominent personalities of Albania. These themes, embodied in each banknote through the portraits of some of the most illustrious national figures, evoke notable episodes in the history of Albania in its endeavours for freedom and prosperity. The themes lead us on a journey through historical eras, starting from Antiquity, moving through the Middle Ages, the National Awakening, the Independence of Albania, and concluding with the symbols of the national flag and anthem on the latest and largest denomination, the 10.000 lek banknote. These symbols have been chosen as representative and unifying elements for every Albanian. While the new series that we are presenting today retains the same themes of the already existing series, its design is reconfigured and restyled, through the application of modern technologies in banknote production. Thanks to cutting-edge technology, the Albanian banknote is now more secure. Its security features – a key priority of the Bank of Albania – are enhanced. In addition, innovative printing techniques and materials have been used to increase durability and the banknotes’ dimensions have been optimised. The design now boasts a fresher look.

Øystein Olsen: Use of models and economic theory in Norges Bank Lecture by Mr Øystein Olsen, Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the Department of Economics, University of Oslo, Oslo, 8 September 2011. *  *  *  The lecture is based on previous speeches and newspaper articles. A brief comment on recent developments is included in the final section. Please note that the text below may differ slightly from the actual presentation. Allow me to start by thanking you for your invitation to give this year’s Schweigaard lecture. Anton Martin Schweigaard was one of the leading statesmen of 19th century Norway. He was a jurist, a politician and an economist. Although “revival of productive forces” and “expansion of national wealth” were to Schweigaard important objectives for economic policy, most important was the promotion of “moral progress”, “public decency” and “the perfection of political and legal institutions”.1 I doubt that Schweigaard was always impressed by the perfection of political institutions, perhaps in particular the institution of Norges Bank. Schweigaard grew up in modest circumstances in the small market town of Kragerø on the coast of southern Norway – a town severely affected by the British blockade of Norway during Denmark-Norway’s involvement in the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. Norges Bank was established in 1816, the year after the Wars ended. The Storting decided that a compulsory silver tax would be levied to provide capital for Norges Bank.