samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
This in turn is a threat to the sustainability of our social market economy, which is the environment in which our monetary policy operates. Second, factor reallocation over time and across sectors is necessary in order to adjust to shocks and therefore key to the smooth transmission of monetary policy. And third, convergence between economies is both an economic and political prerequisite for a wellfunctioning monetary union. I will argue today that for structural reforms to successfully lift potential growth in a monetary union, they have to fulfil two important criteria: (i) they need to be comprehensive and well sequenced and (ii) all-encompassing. “Comprehensive” means that a narrow focus on labour market reforms is not sufficient. Structural reforms are also about incentivising innovation, competition and fighting rentseeking and monopolistic structures. They entail offering new income chances – particularly for the younger generations – by reducing and redistributing rents, and by encouraging economic players to adjust. [4] “All-encompassing” means that reforms cannot focus only on addressing inefficiencies in Member States, but have to take into account externalities and inefficiencies at the level of the Union. This implies reforms in the area of economic governance, and progress in completing the Single Market. And they will form the basis for a better functioning Economic and Monetary Union. Why do we need structural reforms? Potential output growth in the euro area, as in other advanced economies, has been on a steady downwards trajectory for several decades.

In this light, the Bank of Thailand is keen to collaborate with our regional counterparts to promote payment systems connectivity within the region. The third foundation is the work towards standardized rules and regulations. Given our countries’ diverse financial systems, the harmonization of rules and standards should be given a priority so as to strengthen financial interconnectedness on a sustained basis. In the same way that the airline industry harmonizes the regulation on cross-border supply of services, the finance industry should aim at employing internationally accepted principles on finance, which already exist, to help drive harmonization of rules and regulations. Take the payment systems for instance. Currently, different legacy systems among our countries mean that we are not able to “talk” with each other as seamlessly as we wish. Adhering to the same standards, such as the one on financial messaging schemes, can help overcome this challenge. At this stage, the work to achieve harmonization on diverse aspects of banking businesses is underway, and if completed, will make financial transactions within the region much easier. The fourth factor is human capital development. Financial professionals both working in the finance industry and regulators must be well equipped with a set of skills required to serve people of the region. The fast pace of technological and financial innovation indeed urges us to upgrade our capabilities in order to understand more complex financial activities and to cope with growing risks including those related to cyber security.
Although foreign investors' holdings of Swedish government bonds decreased in line with the Riksbank's purchases, their total holdings of Swedish bonds do not appear to have declined (see Figure 5). 16 Although the Riksbank's asset purchases were extensive, they were relatively modest in comparison with the  purchases made by several other central banks, to which I will return later. 17 For example, at the monetary policy meetings in February, March and July 2015, the Riksbank decided both to lower the policy rate and to start or increase asset purchases. It is therefore difficult to determine whether the exchange rate reacted to information about the policy rate or the asset purchases. 8 [30]  Figure 5. Owners of Swedish debt securities Percentage of total stocks  Note. Ownership of certificates and bonds denominated in SEK. "All" includes paper issued by the state, banks, municipalities and companies and also covered bonds. Source: Statistics Sweden. Asset purchases strengthened confidence in the inflation target Asset purchases can also affect the economy through a signalling channel. The academic research often assumes that the central bank wants to avoid financial losses. The central bank can then with the aid of the asset purchases credibly promise to keep the policy rate low for a long time, since the assets the central bank has purchased would fall in value if the interest rate was raised. As far as I know, however, no central bank has communicated in this way.

The recent rapid interest rate increases show instead that the central banks do not hesitate to raise interest rates, despite the fact that this entails losses on their balance sheets. Bernanke (2020) says that the signalling channel has been important, but thinks that it works differently. According to him, market participants rely more on central banks' communication on future asset purchases than on their communication on future interest rate decisions. In addition, they expect the central bank not to raise the policy rate while an asset purchase programme is still in progress. By communicating a purchase programme with a certain duration, the central bank can therefore keep interest rate expectations low.18 Signalling in this way has hardly been important in Sweden, at least not as a conscious strategy on the part of the Riksbank. This is because the market's interest rate expectations during much of this period were lower than the forecast for the policy rate published by the Riksbank. This was most evident when the purchases started in February 2015, as shown in Figure 6. If our ambition was to push down expectations of the future policy rate, this should have been reflected in a lower forecast for the policy rate.19  18 I find it difficult to see the logic of this reasoning (why is central banks' communication on asset purchases  more credible than their communication on interest rates?) but recognise it from expectations that I have sometimes heard expressed by market participants.
Hence, the inflation target is now a more credible nominal anchor for economic agents. To sum it up, today, Turkey appears to be catching up with the Maastricht criterion on inflation. Secondly, the Turkish economy grew by a total of 28 percent between the end 2001 and the first half of 2005. This is the highest rate among the EU countries and the acceding countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, also one of the highest in the world. A closer look into the spectacular growth reveals the fact that the dynamics of growth have been changing as well. These high growth rates have been attained while inflation was coming down continuously, contrary to the widespread belief in Turkey up to 2002 that inflation made growth possible. During this new era, the productivity surge in the economy and the private sector have been the engine of the growth performance. Actually, in the last three years the cumulative increase in labour productivity is about 35 percent. Besides, it is essential to note that exports of goods are contributing to growth with an increasing share. As a matter of fact, the total foreign trade volume has gone up by 120 percent since 2001. This figure is the highest among acceding countries and all members. Turkey is now focusing on maintaining high growth rates on a sustainable path.

Timothy F Geithner: Liquidity and financial markets Keynote address by Mr Timothy F Geithner, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, at the 8th Annual Risk Convention and Exhibition, Global Association of Risk Professionals, New York, 28 February 2007. *  *  *  We have been in a period that market participants have characterized as one of exceptional liquidity. This is both a reflection of, and has contributed to, the ongoing expansion in the world economy. I want to focus my remarks today on the role of liquidity in markets, and what supervisors and market participants can do to make markets more robust against the shocks that we know will occur from time to time. These remarks are directed to a general phenomenon related to developments in the financial markets in recent years, and not to the specific conditions of the moment. Liquidity plays a central role in the functioning of financial markets. Structural changes in the financial system that have been underway for some time increase the importance of market liquidity. The allocation of capital increasingly relies on securities markets, where funds for investment in the real economy are raised through the direct issuance of securities to investors. A greater diversity of financial institutions, institutions other than banks, now play a more active role in the provision of credit and liquidity. Liquidity can mean many different things.
There is clearly the expected positive relationship with population, but the ratio varies hugely: a central bank on the highest of the three parallel lines has ten times the staff per million population as one on the lowest line. The extent of this dispersion is more apparent in Figure 5 which shows the number of staff per million population for the large countries. With only around 3,500 people - down by more than 50% over the last twenty years and still falling fast - the Bank of England itself is one of the most modestly staffed in relation to its population. In contrast to the significant results found by Fry et al. from their sample of developing countries, regression analysis on the industrial country data shows only weak evidence of small economies of scale. Nor did other variables tested on industrial countries yield any significant results. As for the transition economies, their staff numbers generally conform to those in industrial countries with similar populations. The exception is the Bank of Russia, whose staff looks abnormally large. Some of these central banks are still growing as they seek to carry out their new functions; but one or two, like the National Bank of Hungary, are already reviewing what they are doing and how they do it, and are slimming down. By the end of this year, they expect to have 40% fewer staff than two years ago.

When you take a closer look you’ll see the new ten has the same new features as the new five: a portrait of Europa – a figure from Greek mythology – in both the hologram and the watermark, as well as the emerald number, which changes colour from green to deep blue when you tilt the note. Introducing a new banknote, especially one used as much as the ten, is a major undertaking. It requires a lot of planning and preparation to gradually replace the two billion or so ten euro notes currently in circulation. I would like to thank all who were involved in this process within the Eurosystem. I would also like to thank the banks, retailers and other cash-handling professionals, who will, in the end, put those new notes in your hands. I know that banknote equipment manufacturers and suppliers are already working hard to ensure that the  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  machines are adapted in good time so that the introduction goes smoothly, and I want to thank them as well for the vital part they play. We are announcing the date of issuance and are sharing the required technical information well in advance to give all parties enough time to get ready. The new Europa series ten euro banknote will start circulating on Tuesday 23 September this year. And now it’s time to see the new ten euro banknote. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches
Outcome of the exercise for Spanish banks  a)  Of the 15 Spanish banks assessed, 14 have passed the examination, i.e. they exceed the minimum capital required in the three phases of the exercise. One bank, Liberbank, does not reach the minimum 8% ratio set for the comprehensive assessment, standing at 7.8%, i.e. 0.2 pp below the minimum required. b)  This bank has already concluded a capital increase for an amount exceeding € million, meaning that it has already made good the shortfall. c)  The remaining banks comfortably meet the minimum requirements in all the phases of the exercise. 8. Interpretation of the results  The result of the asset quality review – which, unlike the stress tests, is not based on scenarios or future assumptions, but is a detailed review of the balance sheets at end-year 2013 to verify that they give a true and fair view of the position of the banks – shows that it is the Spanish banks that have had to make fewer adjustments, less than 0.2% of risk-weighted assets. The findings of the stress tests are somewhat more difficult to compare, because the scenarios used differ from country to country. But the results obtained show that all the Spanish banks would be resilient in a hypothetical, very severe scenario. In recent years, Spanish banks have substantially written down real estate developmentrelated assets, especially following the requirements of Royal Decree-Laws 2/2012 and 18/2012.

Natasha Ahmetaj: Interesting facts from the Treasury - art in Albanian banknotes Welcome address by Ms Natasha Ahmetaj, Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Albania, at the launch of “Interesting facts from the Treasury: Art in Albanian Banknotes", Tirana, 19 May 2017. * * * Dear friends, dear guests, Today, we are together at the premises of the Bank of Albania, not only in the attribute of this place as the house of money, figuratively, but also in the physical sense of the word, as this room is next to the old treasury room. We have invited you today to enjoy another dimension of the currency, that of an authentic artwork. A work of art always speaks more broadly and deeper than its mere physical dimension. Today, we are in a Museum of works of art. Museums are more than just expositions. While you move from one display to the other, you are not simply walking some centimetres along the street, but you travel through centuries of history. Those few centimetres take you through eras of social civilisation. This is a unique feeling you can only experience in a museum. A zoo or a botanical garden depicts the real world in miniature. But it shows the actual living world. By contrast, a museum brings together different eras, the past and the present. This is especially true in a museum of banknotes and coins. Modestly, our Museum does that as well.
Exposures to emerging market economies are low and limited as credit and financial institutions have taken measures to protect their balance sheet from any undue risk. Despite the strong historical ties with the UK, studies carried out by the Central Bank of Malta indicate that the potential direct adverse effects of a ‘hard Brexit’ on the Maltese economy are deemed to be manageable. The robust economic developments together with the regulatory measures  implemented by domestic authorities have contributed to the further decline in credit risk and improving asset quality, with the non-performing loans ratio for the whole banking system falling to just 3.1% and comfortably below the EU average. Following a contraction phase of four years, lending to non-financial corporates finally turned the corner, increasing by an annual rate of 4.6% in September 2018. This is a welcome sign since it does not only hint that bank disintermediation is normalising, but it also augurs well for monetary policy effectiveness, given that banks are the conduit for its proper functioning. Although such signs are encouraging, we have yet to stimulate more usage of the current liquidity lying idle at the Central Bank. Here, banks play a crucial role in finding new viable business niches. Page | 7  Key performance indicators (KPIs) for domestic financial institutions are healthy but we must not become complacent. Vulnerabilities remain. Aggregate KPIs only give one side of the story masking the variability in operational performance at an institutional and sectoral level.

As you are all well aware, during 2018, the European Central Bank gradually scaled back the nonstandard monetary policy measures that it had introduced to combat the risks of a long period of low inflation and possible deflation. In January, the monthly purchases in terms of the Asset Purchase Programme were halved from € billion to € billion. They were halved again, to € billion, from October. The Governing Council currently anticipates that, subject to incoming data confirming the medium-term inflation outlook, the net purchases will cease altogether in December 2018. Indeed, even after net asset purchases have ended, monetary policy will continue to provide support to the euro area economy as the stock on Central Banks’ balance sheets will be maintained with the re-investment of maturing bonds. The ECB’s key interest rates remain very low, with the overnight deposit rate standing at -0.4%. The Governing Council expects them to remain unchanged at least through the summer of 2019. At the same time, the Governing Council will ensure that ample liquidity conditions will continue to prevail for as long as needed by reinvesting principal payments from maturing securities for an extended period of time. This combination of very low interest rates and ample liquidity should ensure favourable financial conditions for firms and households, underpinning economic activity, and should strengthen the sustained convergence of inflation to the target. Looking ahead, domestic demand will play an important role in economic growth. The prospects in this regard remain favourable.
My own judgment was that the uncertainty surrounding both the economic outlook and the effects of asset purchases made it difficult to have a strong view as to the relative merits of increasing the asset purchase programme to £ billion or £ billion. Indeed, the inflation projection that was published in the August Inflation Report suggested that either policy was consistent with hitting the inflation target, depending on the future path of interest rates. For me, the decision came down to an assessment of the risks of doing too much versus the risks of doing too little. With regard to the potential risks of doing too little, my main concern was that nominal demand would not recover to a level consistent with hitting the inflation target. My main worry with doing too much stemmed from the uncertainty associated with using asset purchases as a policy instrument. We do not have much experience of conducting monetary policy via asset purchases and there is a risk that their effects will be transmitted through the economy in ways we do not predict and do not want. For example, the substantial injections of liquidity might result in unwarranted increases in some asset prices that could prove costly to rectify. I placed considerable weight on both risks and thought that they were best balanced by an expansion of the programme to £ billion. 6  BIS Review 114/2009  I am hopeful that we have started along the road to recovery.

These falls have resulted in a significant degree of economic slack opening up in the economy. Firms are operating below normal capacity; increasing numbers of people are unable to find jobs. This slack detracts from our well-being. And, if it persisted, would pull inflation down well below 2% – the target that I and my colleagues on the Monetary Policy Committee are mandated to aim for. To meet our target, we need to see a sustained period of robust growth that brings the level of activity better into balance with the supply capacity of our economy. It is a recovery in the levels of output and employment that matters, not just a return to positive growth. BIS Review 114/2009  1  The turnaround in growth is underpinned by the extraordinary loosening in monetary policy undertaken by the Monetary Policy Committee over the past 12 months. Only a year ago, Bank Rate was still at 5% and quantitative easing was something we had studied only from afar. Since then, Bank Rate has been cut to an historical low of 0.5% and the Bank is a significant way through a programme of asset purchases totalling £ billion. Economic activity is being supported further by the easing in fiscal policy, the substantial depreciation in sterling, and by the fact that the inventory adjustment appears to be beginning to run its course. But there are a number of headwinds that are likely to slow the pace of recovery. Credit conditions remain tight as banks repair their balance sheets.
In fact, this is a central axis in the conceptual framework modern monetary policy is based on, from the different notions of the Phillips curve to the Neo Keynesian models of general equilibrium that today sustain our forecasting and analysis. With this in mind, we have attached to our December Monetary Policy Report a special study on the functioning of the labor market. It is based on the analysis of new databases that allow us to understand some of the clues to how this market operates, that were beyond our reach in the recent past. The analysis of the labor market, even if done with the intention of drawing macroeconomic implications, must pay attention to its structure and to the way in which the individual decisions of millions of workers and employers—that differ from each other in more ways than one—determine how the aggregates behave. However, studying this diversity empirically is no easy task, and is often absent from the macroeconomic debate. Most labor market indicators that are regularly reported and discussed in the public scene, including wage indexes, unemployment rates or job creation, are not only highly aggregated, but also represent net movements. This implies that much relevant information, such as differences in the behavior of different groups or changes in the composition of the flows, is not present in the analysis or public debate.

Ida Wolden Bache: The conduct of monetary policy Introductory statement by Ms Ida Wolden Bache, Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the hearing of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs of the Storting (Norwegian parliament) in connection with the Storting's deliberations on the Financial Market Report, 9 May 2023. ***  Accompanying charts of the speech Thank you for this opportunity to report on the conduct of monetary policy. When I was here in April last year, Norges Bank had started a gradual normalisation of the policy rate following the coronavirus pandemic. Chart 1: In March 2022, a gradual rise in the policy rate was envisaged The Norwegian economy had recovered after the sharp downturn during the pandemic. High energy prices and a sharp rise in international goods prices had driven up consumer price inflation to a level markedly above the inflation target. Economic activity was strong, and job vacancies were high. Norges Bank expected rising wage growth and higher imported goods inflation to push up inflation through the year, and overall price inflation was projected to be 3.4 percent in 2022. The policy rate was projected to rise towards 2 percent over spring 2023. Chart 2: The policy rate has been raised more than projected a year ago These forecasts were less than accurate. The policy rate has been raised faster and more than projected in March 2022.