samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Ladies and gentlemen, as an illustration of the keen 1/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  competition between financial centres in the region, two months before our tax proposals were approved by the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, Singapore, you know what, announced the lowering of its concessionary tax rate for eligible treasury activities from 10% to 8%. 5. Our story did not end there. As a member of the OECD’s Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, commonly known as BEPS, Hong Kong is committed to implementing the BEPS standards. The relevant OECD Forum on tax practices has recently studied over 100 tax regimes worldwide and taken a view that our newly enacted CTC tax regime has a ring-fencing feature in that only corporate treasury activities relating to non-Hong Kong associated corporations are entitled to the concessionary profit tax rate of 8.25%. This ringfencing feature is of concern to the OECD. In view of this, Hong Kong has been in close dialogue with the OECD Forum and has come up with a solution to address OECD’s concern. So we are planning to extend the concessionary profits tax rate for specified CTC activities to onshore entities subject to some appropriate anti-abuse safeguards. The HKMA is now working with the IRD and FSTB, in consultation with the stakeholders, to work out the details for implementing this solution. 6. Our efforts and dedication have yielded good results lately. The responses from the corporates have been very encouraging.

The TMA has already incorporated the Code into its own code of conduct. So I would urge all treasury market practitioners to study the Code carefully and ensure that they and their firms fully comply with its provisions. 11. As I have said many times before, no external policing or enforcement is a substitute for good corporate culture that supports high ethical standards and values. If one asks any of the financial firms, they will without hesitation say that their corporate culture is to place customers’ interest before their own. However, when you probe further, you will find out that not all of the financial firms have promulgated an explicit corporate culture statement. For those that have such statements, not many of them have a systematic way of ensuring that the values and ethics stipulated therein can filter down different levels of the firms and be understood by the staff and their supervisors. For those that have made some efforts to promote good corporate culture, many have not done enough to ensure that their incentive system, such as pay, bonuses, promotion etc, is aligned with the values that the firms seek to promote. 12. We have seen far too many examples that during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) how some financial firms and their employees breached the trust of their customers by selling toxic products to them due to misaligned incentive system.
As labour becomes more scarce, its price will rise, prompting an adoption of labour-saving technologies or a shift of resources into activities that utilise less labour. This increase in wage cost is a necessary part of the restructuring process but will feed through more generally into prices, especially for a range of domestic consumer services which had hitherto depended heavily on foreign labour, such as cleaning, healthcare, cooked food, and hospitality. Inflation will be temporarily higher, as productivity-enhancing measures take time to bear fruit. During this transition, which will take a few years, the growth-inflation trade-off will worsen. •  GDP growth will be slower during 2011–2020, at 3–5% per annum, about 2% points lower than the average 6% growth in the last decade. This will mainly reflect a sharp reduction in labour force growth. •  At the same time, inflation is expected to be around 1% point higher in this decade compared to the last. MAS Core Inflation is likely to average 2.5% per annum, and CPI-All Items inflation around 3%. Managing inflation expectations and preventing inflation from escalating will be the key challenge facing monetary policy during the transition to a productivity-based economy. Macro policies for economic and financial stability Macro policies would need to be on heightened alert to ensure that Singapore’s enviable track record for macroeconomic and financial stability is safeguarded. Let me now elaborate on the two key thrusts of Singapore’s macro stability policies – monetary policy and macroprudential policy.

Structural reforms were also needed to correct earlier structural mistakes and restore our economic vitality. Whether the measures that have been taken up to the present are sufficient is a debatable issue; but the point I want to make is that a change of direction and some political action had already been initiated in the 1980s. The work has continued since then and been undertaken by governments of diverse political hues and personalities. In other words, something happened to Swedish economic policy in a wide sense in the late 1980s. When the immediate crisis had been managed in the early 1990s it was clear that the weak government finances would have to be tackled. Moreover, the independent status of our central bank has been formally confirmed, accompanied by a clear mandate. The floating exchange rate regime and the explicit target for price stability have worked well. Several segments of the Swedish economy have been deregulated, though less has been done in this way in the labour market than in markets for goods and services. But the labour market organisations have been working on their own account to improve the system for wage formation. As a result of all this, the Swedish economy is doing better than we have seen for a long time. The economic upswing has now continued for more than six years, during which annual GDP growth has averaged around 3%. And notwithstanding the strong growth of demand, inflation has been lower than one would expect from earlier relationships.
These reforms have had an immediate and positive impact on the payment card landscape. The cost of payment card acceptance had started to moderate whilst the annual growth of payment card terminals had tripled from 5.4% in 2014 to 18.1% in 2015. In addition to promoting effective competition within the payment industry, it is also important to preserve the neutrality of Payment and Settlement Systems. This includes neutrality among instruments and geo-political interests. This is especially true for global and critical market infrastructure providers such as SWIFT where the offer of services to all parts of the world should be guaranteed and reliable. The emergence of other service providers to fill any void should it happen, would be most unfortunate as it could diminish efficiencies gained from access to global market infrastructures. As a participant-owned institution, adequate safeguards to maintain SWIFT’s neutrality and finality are essential to ensure it continues to serve its mandate as a trusted provider of secure financial messaging services to facilitate global connectivity. Opportunities from greater standardization and interoperability Let me now move on to the need for standardization and interoperability in Payment and Settlement Systems. Proprietary and legacy systems are costly and a source of much inefficiency as time and resources are needed to maintain different systems and facilitate interconnectivity. Hence, there is much value for the financial community to collaborate through greater standardization to facilitate interoperability and innovation to achieve greater economies of scale and network multiplier effects.

This would be an important step towards breaking the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns; and it would be a further step towards reinforcing the foundations of monetary union. Private risk-sharing does not have to be exclusively via the credit markets and not solely in relation to the public sector. Investors can also help to share risks via the equity markets. Take a German company as an example. If the German economy is hit by a shock, this company will probably be affected too. If its owners, the shareholders, are spread across many countries, the company’s losses will be spread likewise. The more cross-border financing companies have, the less the national economy is affected by any shock and the faster it can recover. In the United States, for instance, this kind of risk-sharing works: studies show that integrated capital markets in the United States absorb 40% of the cyclical variations between the states. 4 This speaks in favour of the European capital markets union project. And also for, as part of this project, a greater harmonisation of equity markets in particular. I admit that this is an ambitious goal as insolvency law and company law, for example, would need to be further harmonised. This step would remove a few barriers to a single European capital market. Closing remarks Ladies and gentlemen, At the beginning of my speech I mentioned the Eurobarometer survey which indicated that 70% of people in the euro area want the euro as the single currency.
Vítor Constâncio: Banking Union and the European crisis Opening remarks by Mr Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the European Central Bank, at the 6th Santander International Banking Conference, Madrid, 5 November 2013. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, Thank you for inviting me to speak today at the Santander International Banking Conference that has become over the years a very relevant event. A window of opportunity is currently open for the banking sector in Europe. We have the possibility to change how the banking sector serves the economy; to implement adequate regulation and ensure its stability and efficiency; and with banking union, to reform how banks are supervised and resolved. If we make the most of this opportunity, we can put the banking sector on a sounder footing for a generation. We therefore face a profound responsibility as policymakers to get these changes right. Today’s conference includes many expert speakers who will go into detail on the on-going reforms of the banking sector. I would therefore like to use my remarks today to recall why the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) was the necessary response to the crisis and how the design of the SSM is addressing some of the weaknesses in the initial architecture of EMU. The point I will emphasise is that one of the main drivers of the crisis was private imbalances financed by banks in both core and peripheral countries.

In the view of the President Van Rompuy’s Report, a stable EMU needs to be built on four pillars: financial union, fiscal union, economic union and political union. Member States have been able to decide a remarkable sequence of reforms in the past few years and there is now a much clearer vision of what rules and institutions are essential for monetary union to function more effectively. The single currency needs strong common institutions. Strong institutions to supervise and stabilise the financial market; to guide fiscal policies; to coordinate economic policy, guarantee competitiveness and encourage sustainable growth. This is the vision that should guide us in all our endeavours to definitely overcome the European crisis. Thank you for your attention. 6  BIS central bankers’ speeches
Durmuş Yılmaz: Recent economic and financial developments in Turkey Speech by Mr Durmuş Yılmaz, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, at the press conference for the presentation of the Inflation Report, Ankara, 26 January 2010. *  *  *  Distinguished Guests and Members of the Press, Welcome to the press conference held to convey the main messages of the January 2010 Inflation Report, one of the most important communication tools of the inflation-targeting regime of the Central Bank. The report typically summarizes the economic framework addressed in monetary policy decisions, elaborates global and domestic macroeconomic developments and presents the medium-term inflation forecasts, which have been revised in view of previous quarter developments, along with the monetary policy stance. Before moving on to the Central Bank’s assessments on the inflation outlook and economic activity, which I will share with you in detail shortly, I would like to summarize the current global conditions. The global crisis, which erupted in developed markets and then spread across the world during the last quarter of 2008, has continued to affect the economic outlook, albeit less forcefully, during the last quarter of 2009. During this period, data releases regarding the global financial system and economic activity displayed an ongoing recovery (Figure 1). However, budget deficits – especially in developed economies – continue to rise, problems across credit markets linger, and employment remains in a precarious state, all suggesting that it would take a long time for the global economy to completely recover (Figure 2).

22.11.2019  Reflections on the Past and Future of Central Bank Independence Seminar on The Relevance of Central Bank Independence: Challenges and Outlook/Banco de México Pablo Hernández de Cos Governor  Good morning. It is my pleasure to participate in this conference on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the autonomy of the Banco de México. I take the opportunity to congratulate you on this landmark. Events such as this contribute to highlighting the relevance of the independence of monetary authorities, and my words today will be along these lines. In my address I shall first briefly refer to the independence of the Banco de España, both as a national central bank in itself but also as a member of the European System of Central Banks. Then, I would like to share with you some more general thoughts about current challenges to central banking from the perspective of their independence. The independence of the Banco de España The Banco de España was granted institutional independence in July 1994. So this year, as is also the case for the Banco de México, marks the 25th anniversary of our Law of Autonomy. The independence of the Banco de España came about as part of the European economic integration process. Following the requirements laid down in the Maastricht Treaty, central banks in the European Union were meant to pursue the primary objective of price stability and be vested with a large degree of independence, both political and operational.
Monetary policy has also benefited from a better government finance situation now compared with 10-20 years ago when there was a trend rise in debt ratios, i.e. government debt as a percentage of GDP, in the majority of OECD countries. Healthier government finances are contributing to stronger macroeconomic performance. Lower borrowing requirements in the public sector contribute firstly to lower real interest rates, which stimulate investment and growth. Secondly, stable government finances boost the credibility of monetary policy. During periods of large deficits and burgeoning government debt there is always a risk from a lender’s point of view that the government will attempt to reduce the real burden of the debt by eroding its real value through increased inflation. The high interest rate levels that Sweden experienced in the wake of the crisis years 1991-93, when nominal long-term rates stood at 12 per cent, was a result of high risk premiums on Swedish bonds owing to lenders’ concerns after a period in which the government debt had risen dramatically. Thirdly, balanced government finances allow automatic stabilisers to have their full effect. This means that demand can be sustained in the economy thanks to unemployment benefit and other factors when economic activity slows if the government finances are in such shape that there is sufficient economic leeway to finance the automatic stabilisers. Generally speaking a more stable climate benefits the economy in many ways. Lower inflation brings with it lower volatility in inflation.

By conducting large-scale repo operations and purchasing sizable quantities of U.S. Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities, we are providing funding and stability at a time of extraordinary volatility in markets.3 These actions averted a potential shutdown in the availability of credit, which would have made the current economic crisis even more severe. In addition to stabilizing financial markets, the Federal Reserve is standing up programs to support the flow of credit to households, businesses, and state and local governments. These actions will enable them to continue to do their work, both now and when normal life resumes.4  2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  Our efforts supporting the provision of credit include a number of programs aimed at different parts of the economy and work through different channels. One set of programs supports the availability of credit to households and businesses—importantly, including small and mediumsized businesses. A second set of programs targets the availability of credit to states and municipalities. Fiscal policy is also playing a critically important role. In particular, it can do what monetary policy cannot: provide for the public health response and transfer income to those most affected by the outbreak. Fiscal policy is also a vital partner in the delivery of our own programs, supplying the financial support necessary for the extraordinary scale of the credit facilities we’re operating. Conclusion I’ll conclude with this: These are extraordinary times, and the Fed is taking extraordinary actions to ease the economic pain.
According to the timetable for the new legislation, the Riksdag’s final decision will be made sometime in the middle of November. It will be followed by the appointment of the Riksbank’s new Governing Board, which will consist of eleven Delegates. One of its major tasks  BIS Review 80/1998  -4-  will be to appoint the Riksbank’s new Executive Board. This Board will consist of six full-time members who will direct the Riksbank and decide monetary policy as of January 1999. The present situation Sweden’s monetary policy is conducted in a flexible exchange rate regime and has an explicit inflation target. We sometimes use the following simple rule of thumb to describe what governs our actions: if the overall assessment of inflation indicates that in one to two years time the rate of inflation will deviate from the 2 per cent target, then the repo rate should be adjusted accordingly. Our approach is symmetrical, which means that it is equally important to avoid undershooting the target, as it is to avoid overshooting it. The Riksbank’s appraisal of inflation up to the autumn of 2000 and the monetary policy conclusions that can be drawn from this are presented in the Inflation Report we published last week. In order to visualise the consequences for the future path of monetary policy, the report is based on the working assumption of an unchanged repo rate.

All supervisory authorities in the Kingdom, including SAMA, continued their efforts in performing periodical inspections in the area of anti-money laundering over entities under their supervision in accordance with the concept of the risk ratio standard to increase efficiency of control and supervision operations and benefit from the capabilities available in various fields to ensure the application of instructions and regulations. Dear Audience, Bearing in mind the risks posed to our economy by Money Laundering and emphasizing its supervisory and control role, SAMA issues continuous instructions and updates regulations and guidelines to cope with domestic, regional and international developments. We stress here the necessity of compliance with regulations, standards and instructions related to Anti-Money Laundering; the implementation of policies to monitor operations; and reporting Money Laundering activities to thwart any attempts aimed at abusing banks and money-changers operating in the Kingdom as channels to pass illegal transactions. Dear Audience, The positive results achieved by the Kingdom are an incentive and impetus to all of us to keep on executing development plans and work continuously to combat Money Laundering crimes, safeguarding the soundness of our national economy with all its financial and non-financial sectors against adverse impacts. The Kingdom will not hesitate to undertake all measures and means to attain the highest levels of quality and to meet International Anti-Money Laundering standards. I would like reiterate the importance of cooperation among relevant domestic, regional and international entities, intensifying efforts and exchanging technical information and expertise to detect, monitor and pinpoint Money Laundering operations.
Investment of the remaining sectors of the economy represented 31% of total investment over the period 2004–08. In 2008, this ratio was 26.4%, although investment in these sectors increased sharply during this year (+37.4%). In the context of structural excess savings over investments, the structure of investment financing in Algeria over the past 5 years reflects the predominance of self-financing (82.5%) on account of the budgetary financing of the public investment programs. Indeed, with significantly increased financing capacity, domestic financing has been the sole source of public investments financing, at a time where external debt was significantly reduced, notably through advanced repayments of nearly all public external debt (which amounted to $ billion 13.9 by end 2003). Domestic public debt has also been significantly reduced to a level representing 6.6% of GDP in 2008, down from 18.7% of GDP in 2003. In addition, available resources in the stabilization fund amounted to $ billion 59 by end 2008, representing a sizeable self-financing capacity which allows continued implementation of the investment program (2009–10) in the context of external shocks. While Sonatrach’s investments were partly – although to a large extent – financed on the company’s own resources over the period 2001–04, accumulated savings (reaching $ billion 18 by end 2008) have since allowed for total self-financing of the oil company’s investments, with investments in 2009 upstream and downstream significantly increasing, in view of the important opportunities in the sector and in line with the objective of achieving potential capacity.

On that day, all 57 outstanding issues of Exchange Fund Notes, with a total value of more than $ billion, will be so listed. I very much hope that this joint effort by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company and the HKMA will successfully stimulate retail interest in our Exchange Fund Notes and, more importantly, retail interest in debt instruments generally. Let me now take this opportunity to do a bit of advertising. The Exchange Fund Notes are, of course, issued for the account of the Exchange Fund. Furthermore, all issues of Exchange Fund paper are fully backed by foreign reserves. For every $ worth of Exchange Fund Notes there is $ held in the Exchange Fund. Investors therefore need have no concerns about the ability of the Exchange Fund to repay this debt. At this time, the Exchange Fund Notes also attract a yield higher than that for US dollar Treasury securities of corresponding maturity. Interest income from holding the Exchange Fund Notes will be exempt from profits tax and trading in the paper will be exempt from stamp duty. The Stock Exchange has also offered to lower the brokerage commission on these products. For a community that has always had a keen and very wide participation in the stock market, the convenience of being able to buy and sell the Notes on these terms, through the brokers on the Exchange, speaks for itself. So much for the advertisement.