samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
And to help us navigate this long, winding and foggy road, we should take a pause and look back, and ask ourselves what we did well, what we could have done better, and how to do things better in the future. 10. Today I would like to take this opportunity to share three reflections with you. I won’t pretend that these are in any way definitive. But these, I believe, are the key takeaways from our experience so far. Radical Open-Mindedness 11. The first reflection is the need for radical open-mindedness, a term that I borrow from Ray Dalio, who used it to describe idea generation in investments. I would say this is even more applicable to fintech innovation – we need to be radically open to new ideas and try things that could make the financial system better. 12. When we brainstorm ideas for new fintech projects, we usually won’t know where they will lead us. The only sure thing is that if you don’t try, you never get anywhere. The key is to learn from failure and move on. This mindset has gotten us the hugely popular FPS, eight virtual banks and a vastly more advanced data-sharing infrastructure in our financial system. 13. In the beginning we were sometimes a bit resistant, wondering how new creatures like crypto, stablecoins, DeFi and other blockchain-based innovations can fit into “mainstream finance”.

We may be more familiar with “less is more”, which is the mantra for designing friendly user interfaces or cool technology products. But new platforms in retail payments, data infrastructure and cross-border payments tend to be more successful and sustainable when they achieve widespread adoption and leading to strong network effects. 23. Just think about FPS. Would you still use it every day if your friends and family were not on the platform? From the design stage, we aimed to include more currencies and payment institutions, so as to attract a rapid build-up of users. The result is the world’s first multi-currency instant payment system connecting banks, e-wallets, and customers. With this strong network effect, FPS adoption in Hong Kong is perhaps one of the fastest in the world. We are strengthening this network effect further by introducing FPS payments for merchants and government bills. 24. Or think about why we launched CDI. Data is an essential nutrient to technological development. Currently, commercial data is scattered across isolated data islands built bilaterally between banks and individual data providers. The idea of CDI is to provide a common data infrastructure that will replace these compartmentalised, one-to-one connections with an efficient many-to-many connection. Banks will have common access to a sea of data which allows them to compete on innovation in service delivery. For this to happen, we need scale. We need to connect as many data providers, data consumers and data owners as possible in order to create the network effect. 25.
This was mainly attributed to the seasonal inflationary pressures associated with food prices during this time of the year, as well as pass-through effects of the exchange rate depreciation. Distinguished Media Practitioners, you will also be interested to note that the Bank of Zambia has been refining its monetary and supervisory tools. The Bank recorded a shift in its Monetary Policy Framework in 2012 from the strict use of monetary aggregates to short-term interest rates, to better anchor inflation expectations. To this effect, the Bank of Zambia introduced a Policy Rate in April 2012 to, among other things, enhance communication of monetary policy direction to the public and introduce transparency in the way commercial banks and other financial institutions price their products. Ladies and Gentlemen, owing to the general decline in the rate of inflation over time, interest rates are expected to decline. However, commercial banks’ average lending rate rose to 16.4% in December 2013 from 16.1% in December 2012 largely reflecting upward adjustment in the Bank of Zambia Policy Rate. The adjustment in the Policy Rate was aimed as containing inflationary pressures attributed to removal of fuel and maize subsidies during the year. In 2013, the average lending rate increased to 17.0% at end-March. As the cost of borrowing is a key factor in facilitating sustainable economic growth and enhanced financial inclusion, it is one of Bank of Zambia’s objectives to see commercial banks’ lending rates eventually trending down significantly.

Michael Gondwe: Outline of Zambia’s recent macroeconomic performance and projected outlook Opening speech by Dr Michael Gondwe, Governor of the Bank of Zambia, at the 15th Bank of Zambia Media Seminar, Siavonga, 1 May 2014. *  *  *  Mr Chairman, Distinguished Colleagues from the Media Fraternity, Senior Director – Monetary Policy, Senior Director – Supervisory Policy, Fellow Bank of Zambia Officials, Ladies and Gentlemen. It’s my great pleasure and honour to be with you today at this important Seminar for Professional Media Practitioners. Allow me first, on behalf of the Bank of Zambia, and indeed my own behalf, to begin by welcoming you to this very important event, being the 15th in the Bank of Zambia – Media Seminar Series that we have been conducting for Journalists from across the Zambian media fraternity. Distinguished Colleagues, it is simply not possible to overemphasise the importance of the media to matters affecting national development. You are the window through which the world sees us all. Your reporting conveys important information about the economy, as well as the business environment and financial performance of the country, industries, institutions, households and indeed individuals. This information becomes very useful to a wide range of users in making business decisions. Therefore, as Journalists, you bear a great responsibility of keeping the public as well informed as possible and it is imperative therefore, that you report factually and accurately.
The Green Swan explores three dimensions of this coordination: ‐ firstly, the interactions between monetary and prudential policies with fiscal policies; 14  See for instance the call for action issued by Nobel Prize Laureates and other experts: Agre et al. (2021). Our Planet, Our Future: An Urgent Call for Action. Accessible at: https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2021/04/nobel‐prize‐laureates‐and‐other‐experts‐issue‐urgent‐call‐for‐ action‐after‐our‐planet‐our‐future‐summit  5  ‐ ‐  secondly, how central banks can facilitate the international monetary and financial coordination needed on climate change; and, lastly, how central banks can contribute to promoting values and behaviours that are particularly important for the low‐carbon transition, such as long‐termism. For example, climate change is now at the agenda of the G7 and the G20 finance Tracks where representatives of finance ministries and central banks work together. New forms of cooperation between the public and the private sector have emerged as well, such as on the very important topic of disclosure: ‐ The TCFD for climate‐related disclosure; tasked by the FSB (finance ministries and CB) but private led; the work of the TCFD is now taken into account by public authorities and standard‐setting bodies at the global level (IFRS) as well as in the EU (EU Commission / EFRAG) ‐ The TNFD, a private‐led initiative that brings together industry, NGOs, international organisations and public authorities, aiming to develop a nature‐related disclosure. As Mark Carney stressed yesterday, disclosure should be a priority and his goal for the Cop 26 is to make the TCFD framework mandatory.

Speech by Sylvie Goulard,  Deputy Governor Banque de France, Green Swan conference 3 June 2021  I would like to thank all the organisers of this Green Swan conference, and especially Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva from the BIS. Luiz has been the soul of the organising team we set up some months ago with the authors of the Green Swan ‐ Prof Bolton, Morgan Després, Luiz Pereira da Silva, Frederic Samama, Romain Svartzman1 – to whom I wish to pay tribute. As the Green Swan was published in January 2020, we were living in a pre‐Covid world. The authors warned of the severe risks associated with climate change and of “other human‐caused caused environmental degradation such as the loss of biodiversity”. The title of the Green Swan is a play on the concept of Nassim (Nicholas) Taleb’s – the Black Swans,2 i.e. events affecting the financial sector that are unexpected, of a large magnitude and can be only explained afterwards), with analogies but also differences: ‐ It is quite certain that climate events will occur even if we don’t know when and how; ‐ They could be even worse than the ones caused by Black Swans, because climate change and many of its impacts are largely irreversible; ‐ no single agent (household, firm, financial institution, government) can hedge against these risks on her/his own. This means that managing Green Swans requires an unprecedented level of cooperation. 1 2  I thank Romain Svartzman for his assistance in preparing these remarks. Taleb, N.N. (2007).
The MPC is accountable for hitting the inflation target. Developments in the rest of the world certainly affect us. And inflation will not always be close to target. But ultimately UK inflation is our responsibility: it is made and controlled in Threadneedle Street. The credibility of monetary policy relies on companies and households having confidence that the Committee will keep inflation close to target. After a series of failed monetary frameworks in the 1970s and 80s, the gains in credibility associated with the introduction of inflation targeting and the creation of an independent policy committee greatly improved the functioning of our economy. The task of maintaining low and stable inflation was made substantially easier, and we enjoyed a sustained period of economic stability. We lose those hard-fought gains at our peril. The MPC stands charged on four counts. Why is inflation so high? Why has inflation been so much higher than we expected? Could inflation remain high? And how is the current stance of policy consistent with the inflation outlook? My task today is to make the case for the defence. Why is inflation so high?

But many EMEs also recovered quickly because they had the capacity and credibility to pursue countercyclical policies in response to large external shocks to aggregate demand for the first time. On many fiscal metrics, some economies in the emerging world now look in better shape than many of those in the advanced world. This challenges the traditional distinction between developed country and emerging market sovereign creditworthiness. Where the developed world still stands apart is in the quality of its institutions, legal and policy frameworks, and the sophistication of its technologies and markets. But even here the gap is narrowing. The story of the EMEs has generally been an extraordinarily positive one for the world as hundreds of millions of people have lifted themselves out of poverty. Nevertheless, even before the crisis, it was evident that the relationship between developed and emerging economies was becoming strained and needed to be adjusted; the status quo would clearly be unsustainable. Consider, for example, the economic relationships between the United States and China that prevailed over the past decade or so. Some experts have summarized the arrangements as follows. The United States bought Chinese exports at low prices, which bolstered U.S. living standards and held down U.S. inflation. The United States did not take extreme steps to try to force China to revalue the renminbi upward against the dollar, and China, in turn, invested its trade surplus and capital  2  2  Figures are real GDP-weighted indexes for each group. BRICs include Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Finally, 2 See the EMI report: “The single monetary policy in Stage Three - Elements of the monetary policy of the ESCB”, February 1997. 3 See, for instance, Lars E.O. Svensson, “Inflation forecast targeting : Implementing and monitoring inflation targets”, European Economic Review 41 (1997), 1111-1146. 4 Lecture given by Mervyn King at the London School of Economics on Wednesday 29 October 1997 to mark the tenth anniversary of the LSE Financial Markets Group. BIS Review 112/1997  -3-  monetary targeting by the ESCB would be in continuity with the strategy implemented by the Bundesbank since 1975 and by the Banque de France since 1976. However, this strategy hinges on the stability of money demand. Preliminary research has shown that EU-wide money equations often perform better than comparable national equations.5 Nonetheless, this may provide no safe guidance for the starting period of EMU in so far as the move to Stage Three constitutes a change of regime which might lead to breakdowns in empirical relationships. 1.3. Indicators: an important role for the exchange rate and long term interest rate of the euro It is likely that, while avoiding a “looking-at-everything” approach, the ESCB will closely monitor, in addition to the intermediate objective, a broad set of other economic and financial indicators to help assess the risks to future price stability. In this set of indicators, emphasis will probably have to be laid on the exchange rate and the long-term interest rate of the euro, for at least three reasons.

The ability to offer different types of products to suit the local needs of Mpongwe district will go a long way in enhancing access to financial services in this area. The Bank of Zambia is determined to facilitate viable branch expansion, and the introduction of new and innovative financial products, to tap savings and channel these savings to investment. The Bank will therefore continue to work in close collaboration with the financial sector to cultivate partnerships in order to establish the frameworks and pursue policies that will drive financial innovation, build strong financial institutions and partnerships to ensure a stable financial sector in the country. As I conclude, let me once again again commend the Board and Management of NATSAVE for this enviable initiative of spreading the branch network throughout the country and having presence in economically viable areas such as Mpongwe. I wish to assure you that the opening of this branch will soon result in increased investment, creation of jobs and a growth in profits for the bank. Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentleman, it is now my singular honour and pleasure to declare the National Savings and Credit Bank, Mpongwe branch, officially opened. I THANK YOU  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3
Agreement of the TLAC standard signifies that authorities in FSB have put in place the last major piece of the financial reform architecture. They have agreed the amount of gone concern loss-absorbing capacity that is needed to balance the going concern requirements in Basel III. TLAC is also based on a shared approach to resolution through bail-in. In other words, the end goal is in sight. So what happens next? For TLAC the priority is national implementation. With three years to 2019 and the need for G-SIBs to set out their capital plans for investors, there is no time to waste. US and Swiss authorities started the ball rolling. We in the UK followed at the end of last year with a Consultation Paper on the Bank’s approach to setting a minimum  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL). We are considering the responses received and are aiming to come out with a final policy statement soon. 3 I hope that greater certainty about requirements and firms’ plans to meet them will reduce the risk premium that attaches to debt financing now and drives a wedge in pricing between instruments that are economically equivalent, particularly between the US and Europe. Clarification of national approaches to implementation of TLAC will also provide the platform on which to build internal TLAC. There is technical complexity to work through here – how in keeping with the high level principles in the Term Sheet to design the instruments.

In case of remote payments, such as Internet payments, an additional requirement has been introduced for the so-called dynamic linking. It requires linking each transaction to a specific amount and a particular payee by sending one-time code messages by the payment service providers. The forthcoming review of the PSD 2 will provide a comprehensive assessment of the strong customer authentication impact on the level of payment fraud. New requirements are considered in order to reduce ‘social engineering’ and ‘phishing’ types of fraud, including a requirement to 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  match the payee’s name in the payment order with that of the account holder. Special emphasis will be placed on the prevention of instant payment fraud. Electronic identification and certificatebased solutions are explored as means of strong customer authentication. Recently, a special focus has been placed on re-defining and strengthening the oversight of the wider payment ecosystem. Specific steps in this aspect have been taken by the ECB with the draft of a single Eurosystem oversight framework for electronic payment instruments, schemes and arrangements (PISA framework), published last year. PISA framework aims to cover not only the traditional payment schemes and instruments (e.g. payment cards), but also innovative instruments, such as digital payment tokens backed by assets (e.g. stablecoins). Last September the European Commission published a Proposal for a Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA), which is currently under discussion.
Moreover, there now seems to be a tendency towards investing in property and taking up loans at a more mature age so that younger generations not only inherit dwellings, but debt as well. Both debt and wealth are on the rise for these more mature age groups. Sharp increases in asset prices and debt accumulation may pose a risk to economic stability. With a view to mitigating this risk, it will be appropriate in some situations to apply a somewhat longer time horizon than the usual two years to attain the inflation target. At present, however, debt accumulation is high only in the household sector. There is little borrowing activity in the enterprise sector. House prices are rising, but prices for office space are stable. Output and employment are at trend level. Unemployment is on a par with the average for the 1990s, wage growth is consistent with the inflation target, credit growth is close to long-term nominal GDP growth, relative labour costs and prices are approximately at the same level as the average for the past 30 years and the interest rate differential is close to zero. But inflation is low, as a result of the lagged effects of the strong krone, low import prices and high productivity growth. The analyses in the inflation report indicate that inflation will remain low this year, picking up thereafter. The krone depreciation since January 2003 is expected to push up prices for imported consumer goods.

Despite global challenges, the Thai economy still carries on its recovery, with sound financial system and good macroeconomic stability. With fundamental strengths remaining in place, we expect a stronger and more resilient recovery going forward, especially through the legal reform initiatives that would ensure better governance, improve the distribution of income and economic opportunities, enhance productivity, and foster sustainability. Making all these happen will continue to be a challenging task and require continued efforts from all parties involved. We look forward to strengthening our business cooperation and partnership with our European friends and investors like yourselves in the years to come. Thank you for your kind attention. 8
A positive output gap indicates a level of activity that fuels pressures on economic resources and rising price and cost inflation. (See for example Frøyland and Nymoen (2000) and Olsen, Qvigstad and Røisland (2003) for more on the output gap.) The optimism spread to Norway, where equity prices also rose. The level of activity was very high in the securities market, among corporate lawyers, consultancies and in the ICT industry. High oil prices through most of the 1990s resulted in buoyant investment activity and growth in operating expenses in the petroleum sector. With substantial government tax revenues, expectations concerning the use of petroleum revenues also rose. It became increasingly challenging to keep pressures in the economy at bay by means of fiscal policy. The response to this challenge was the revision of economic policy in spring 2001. The most important policy change was the strategy for the phasing in of petroleum revenues – the so-called fiscal rule. An inflation target for monetary policy was introduced at the same time. The revision came after four years of strong economic expansion and high growth in labour costs, pressures to spend petroleum revenues and high household credit growth. Implementation of monetary policy • The interest rate is set so as to keep inflation at a low and stable level • Higher interest rates will reduce inflation by curbing demand and strengthening the krone. An interest rate reduction has the opposite effect. • The effects of interest rates on inflation may vary over time.

Spreading the use of revenues in this way is in line with the fiscal rule as it has been formulated. As a result of the change in the inflation outlook two years ahead, Norges Bank’s Executive Board decided to reduce the key rate by 0.5 percentage point, to 6.0 per cent, on 22 January. In its assessment of the inflation outlook, Norges Bank pointed out that the krone has strengthened since the October Inflation Report and that it was 3 per cent stronger than the assumption underlying the baseline scenario. We also cited fears of war and high oil prices, a weak and unsteady global recovery, higher electricity prices, lower optimism among households and the prospect of lower growth  in private consumption than previously projected. We also pointed out that we had not yet seen the full impact of high wage growth and a strong krone on employment in enterprises that are heavily exposed to international competition. On balance, developments point to low inflation in the period ahead. According to Norges Bank’s assessment, with an interest rate of 6.0 per cent, the probability that inflation two years ahead will be lower than 2½ per cent is greater than the probability that it will be higher. The global recovery is weak and unsteady. Growth forecasts for our trading partners were revised downwards in the course of last year. The situation has been marked by fears of war in Iraq over a longer period. US - consumer confidence Monthly figures. Seasonally adjusted.