samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
On 10 March, we gave the following indications: “key ECB interest rates [will] remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of our net asset purchases”, which means extending well beyond March 2017. Turning now to the comprehensive package that has just been introduced, it sends out two clear messages: a) Our decisions are guided by our mandate which is to bring inflation back towards our target of 2% over the medium term. We are firmly set on this objective, and have a broad range of instruments with which to achieve it. In addition to negative interest rates, which naturally have their limits, we are also acting both on bank lending – via credit easing with the new TLTRO – and on market financing - via the extended QE asset purchase programme – and are guaranteeing that we shall continue to do so for as long as necessary - via forward guidance. b) Our priority is to promote the financing of the real economy. The goal of TLTRO 2 is not, as some have claimed, to offset the impact of negative rates on banks. It is to encourage banks to lend to corporations, SMEs and households alike; similarly, extending the asset purchase programme to corporate bonds will be of particular benefit to large French corporations. In other words, we are securing the provision of credit to businesses and households, and protecting it from tensions linked to market volatility. 2) These non-standard measures have been effective.

Beyond augmenting our talent pool, foreigners living and working in Singapore enrich our culture and diversity. They help us to develop an even more cosmopolitan outlook, and keep our city state abuzz with vibrancy and energy. External linkages Besides restructuring our domestic economy, we also need to expand outwards, to invest in the region and ride on its growth. To do so, we need to expand our horizons, to understand more deeply the world around us, of which South Asia is a major focus of our interest. The Singapore Economic Development Board will be setting up an office in Mumbai. This will be its first office in India, to better service Indian companies which are looking at investing in Singapore and our region. More importantly, our companies also need to venture out of Singapore, to ride the growth of India. To better appreciate conditions and opportunities in India, Singapore plans to set up a South Asian Institute (SAI) later this year. The Institute will be part of the National University of Singapore. It will track economic and political developments in the subcontinent and collaborate with key institutes in India and elsewhere. The SAI will complement the work of the current East Asian Institute (EAI) and Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS). Together, these institutes will provide us with a more comprehensive assessment of the region within a seven-hour flight radius, and so encourage more of our companies to venture abroad.
Mr Noyer considers the role of the central bank in encouraging and safeguarding savings  Speech given by Mr Christian Noyer, Vice-President of the European Central Bank, at the EUROFONDS colloquium in Paris, held on 21 January 2000. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to be taking part in this EUROFONDS colloquium on savings. I should like to take this opportunity to share with you some thoughts on the role of a central bank in encouraging and safeguarding savings. This is indeed a crucial matter, since the level of savings largely determines the long-term level of productive investment, which provides the basis for solid and stable growth. Moreover, the level and structure of savings affects, in various ways, the cost and means of financing enterprises, the profitability of the financial sector and the distribution of income between generations in view of the central issue of financing retirement. I should like to focus my presentation, as I am sure you will understand, not on the central bank in theory but on the role of the Eurosystem in this field, that is, the European Central Bank and the 11 national central banks of the euro area. In addition, I shall say a few words on the impact of the launch of the euro on the development and safeguarding of savings in Europe. I shall therefore develop two points: •  By safeguarding price stability, the Eurosystem contributes to the safeguarding and consolidation of savings.

Islamic finance in the era of deleveraging The clear and present danger to all financial activity, including Islamic finance, is the risk of contagion from an escalation of the Eurozone crisis. Islamic finance is closely intertwined with underlying economic activity and will be affected by the impact of slower global growth. Contagion from the Eurozone has already curtailed economic growth and capital inflows to many emerging economies where Islamic finance has taken root. Potential spillovers from an escalation of the Eurozone crisis could lower output in the Middle East and North Africa region by about 3¼ percent relative to baseline, the largest spillover effect for any region outside Europe. But Islamic finance has a window of opportunity in the current climate of deleveraging in the global financial system. With its strict prohibition on excessive leverage, Islamic finance has been spared the worst of the financial crisis. Islamic banks are well positioned to reach out to new customers who are in need of financing as many global institutions pull back on their lending due to the need to repair their balance sheets. Islamic finance should diversify into growth areas such as trade and infrastructure financing, where demand is still strong, especially in emerging economies. With a focus on supporting real productive activities, Islamic finance is naturally compatible with trade and infrastructure development. Tapping these sectors also brings about greater diversification benefits, especially for Islamic institutions which have been hurt by their significant lending exposure to the real estate sector.
Conclusion  Pay prospects are determined in part by employment, in part by productivity and in part by power. All three have been important in explaining the weakness of pay during its recent “lost decade”. And each is likely to continue to be important for pay in the period ahead. Monetary policy can support the first piece of the pay jigsaw – employment. It has done so significantly over recent years, perhaps to the tune of creating 1 ½ million new jobs. But it can do little over the medium term to support productivity or to reshape the structural forces influencing pay power, the second and third pieces of the pay jigsaw. Doing so relies on policies which shift the supply side of the economy. Longer-term, it is through improved skills, productivity and structural reform and regeneration that pay power for workers can be restored. This underlines the importance of the Government’s Industrial Strategy, whose objectives are to do just that. In its White Paper on Industrial Strategy published last year, the Government proposed setting up an Industrial Strategy Council. 31  This independent body of experts was designed to monitor, and report  publically, on progress towards meeting the objectives of the industrial strategy. Earlier this week, I was delighted to be appointed, in a personal capacity, to Chair the Industrial Strategy Council. I believe it can play an important role in supporting the Government’s industrial strategy, which seeks to increase living standards across the UK, help industry to thrive and boost workers’ pay power.

In recent years, however, this sort of consideration has not played such a prominent role. There are several interrelated explanations for this. Monetary policy thus far has been aimed to a great extent at establishing a regime of low inflation and engendering understanding for it. In practice, the scope is also limited for monetary policy decisions of a fine-tuning character by the uncertainty that prevails, inter alia, about future developments and by the degree of credibility for the low inflation policy. 2. Uncertainty and Credibility There are various kinds of uncertainty that in practice play an important part in monetary policy and are also important for the speed and scale with which changes in interest rates are made: - One type of uncertainty has to do with the economy’s basic mechanisms.. Which model of the economy shall we use for our analysis? A major problem here in recent years has been that the shift to low inflation and a flexible exchange rate by itself can change the relationships in the model. - A second type of uncertainty concerns the interpretation of new information that is constantly coming in. It is important in this connection to assess what effects an interference or a shock have, which, inter alia, is linked with whether it is permanent or temporary. - Finally there is uncertainty about the effect of the measures that the Riksbank can take--in practice, changes in the instrumental interest rates.
In the short term, the most significant cause for concern in the US economy is that employment is still weak. Of course, the combination of rapid growth in GDP and a weak labour market mean that productivity growth is good, but the dismal labour market situation could nevertheless create uncertainty among households and contribute to subduing consumption. However, it is difficult to believe that it would put an end to the upturn we are seeing now. There are also signs of an upturn in the euro area now, although the picture is not as clear-cut as in the United States. Business tendency surveys for industry show an increased optimism, while industrial production is slowly beginning to rise. Developments in Asia, central and eastern Europe also appear to be slightly stronger than was previously assumed. However, the stronger euro may lead to a slightly slower upturn in the euro area. All in all, the picture of international economic activity now looks somewhat brighter than we anticipated in December. The upturn in economic activity appears to be proceeding roughly as we had anticipated it would. The Swedish economy has also turned We assumed in the December Inflation Report that growth in Sweden would gradually increase during the course of 2003 and would amount to 1.5 per cent for the whole year. During 2004 and 2005 growth was expected to be around 2.5 per cent, which is in total a slightly more rapid rate than the Riksbank considers sustainable in the long-term without inflation rising.

Lars Heikensten: Monetary policy - some current issues Speech by Mr Lars Heikensten, Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, at the Stockholm School of Economics, Economic Association, Stockholm, 10 February 2004. *  *  *  Let me begin by thanking you for the invitation to come here to the economic association. It has become something of a tradition that the Riksbank Governor comes here once a year to talk about current issues regarding monetary policy. I think this is excellent, particularly as it contributes to a lively, in-depth discussion of monetary policy in society. Those who have followed the Riksbank and monetary policy in recent years know that transparency and clarity have been guiding principles in our work. Today I intend to provide some perspective on monetary policy by means of a backward glance over the past ten years. This is a natural foundation for the current discussion on interest rates which I will address a little later. I have no intention of giving any new monetary policy signals today, but to give an account of the basis for our repo rate decision last week. One particularly interesting question at present is productivity growth, which appears to have been better than expected last year. The conclusions that can be drawn from this development are my third theme. Finally, I shall give my views on the recent monetary policy debate, something I have been asked about on numerous occasions in the past couple of months.
The net zero challenge and the UK's role as a global financial hub The transition to a low emission world brings with it a unique set of risks – such as the risk of disorderly transitions away from emissions-intensive assets. Only the financial sector has the capability to marshal the vast sums of investment needed to help businesses and individuals structurally reduce emissions and move in an as orderly way as possible towards sustainable alternatives. The IEA expects that the world will need annual clean energy investment of $ trillion by the end of the decade to limit warming to 1.5oC2, while other recent studies have estimated that between $ trillion and $ trillion of cumulative investment will be required to meet global net-zero emissions by 2050.3 One of the key areas of COP27 is mobilising climate finance for developing countries. The UK's position as a global financial centre means it has a pivotal role to play in relation to the provision of sustainable finance to tackle climate change. This was strengthened further when the UK Government published its UK Green financing framework in June 2021 followed by the launch of the first green gilt issuance in September 2021 which raised £ billion and was the largest inaugural green bond issuance ever undertaken by a sovereign. Total green gilt issuance for the financial year 2021-22 raised a total of £ billion, and further green gilt issuance of £ billion is planned in 2022-23.

On the one hand we can choose a path towards fully-integrated international regulatory and supervisory structures, in order to achieve a better match with the global format of the financial system. On the other hand, we can choose a path towards shrinking the financial system back inside national borders, within the perimeters of current regulatory and supervisory arrangements. Obviously, reality will not be as black and white as to make a simple choice between these two paths possible. Future regulatory reform will probably take some kind of middle road. But if someone asked me for directions my answer would be clear. The benefits of financial globalisation are too great for us to afford to close national borders and to roll back financial integration. A new European supervisory structure – the de Larosière proposals As you all know, the European Union chose its path already some time ago. Based on the belief that integrated markets contribute to economic growth (and also to other important policy objectives) the European Union has established a legal and institutional framework for the supervision and regulation of financial markets. However, even though we have come a long way towards establishing a single European market, the regulatory and supervisory structures are still very much fragmented along national lines – a fact that we have been painfully re-minded of during the current crisis. The problems experienced with the Icelandic banks and the Benelux-based conglomerate Fortis are just a couple of examples.
If there is an institutional framework that is credible from the start, it will not need to be used in most cases. It is to some extent this type of framework that the European Financial Stability Facility, EFSF, is meant to become. It will be able to buy government securities issued by euro area countries. However, it is difficult to restore market confidence when it is already seriously damaged. The institutional framework must be in place and have credibility before the crisis breaks out. This makes the crisis easier to manage and one might even prevent it arising at all. It is probably the case here that politicians in the EU have helped increase market distrust because of the way they have handled the crisis. For example, it is understandable from a political point of view that they have wanted to force private lenders to write off their loans to Greece. But from an economic perspective – and in the longer run also political – this is not such a good idea. This has meant that Italy and Spain have had to pay much higher interest rates than before – not primarily because one perceives a risk that Italy and Spain will be unable to service their debts, but because the market has become uncertain as to whether the politicians intend to take similar coercive measures here. If one suffers an acute crisis, whether one has created it oneself or not, one must consider carefully how it should be managed.

At the same time, sharp rises in the prices of oil and other commodities reduced the income households had available to spend on more discretionary items and put downward pressure on those prices. Not surprisingly, that loss of spending power was one of the contributory factors to the standstill in consumer spending in the second quarter of last year. But since then consumer spending and output growth in the economy have picked up, and in the first half of this year were growing at around their long-run average rates. After a prolonged period during which consumer price inflation was below its 2% target, inflation has been above target for nine out of the past thirteen months. So what are the challenges facing the Monetary Policy Committee as it tries to bring inflation back to the 2% target? Since their peak in early August, oil prices have fallen by around a quarter. In due course, that will ease the pressure on petrol prices and fuel bills, including gas and electricity. The direct impact was seen in the producer price data published yesterday, and will be seen in CPI inflation over the coming months – making it less likely that I will have to write an explanatory letter to the Chancellor than was the case two months ago – although the anticipated fall in inflation for September may not persist for long. Over the past year, profit margins, especially in manufacturing, have been squeezed and outside the oil sector the share of profits in GDP has fallen.
On the basis of these tenets, and within the framework of international co-ordination I have referred to, banking systems as internationalised, interdependent, liberalised, dynamic and complex as those at present require an increasingly less intrusive and more incentives-based form of regulation, along with more preventive supervision. To achieve such regulation and supervision we are, at the national and international levels, setting aside ever more resources. The relevance of all these matters has been duly reflected in the work of different groups at the international level, addressing the associated accounting, financial regulation and corporate governance facets. In the EU, we may mention the action envisaged under the Financial Services Action Plan, or the work of groups such as the High Level Group of Company Law Experts. And in the international domain we have the work of the International Accounting Standards Board. In Spain the Financial Law, currently under passage through Parliament, heralds many improvements, one of which is particularly significant for banking supervision. This is, namely, the possibility of considering as a breach of disciplinary rules the situation whereby a credit institution’s solvency and viability is jeopardised by administrative or accounting shortcomings or deficiencies in internal control procedures, including those relating to risk management. The methodology known as Supervision of Banking Activity under the Risk Approach, on which the Banco de España has been working, provides a framework suited to meeting the challenges posed to Spanish banking supervision by the aforementioned aspects.

Major changes have been initiated in the areas of human resources management and technology, and the directorates banking supervision, internal audit, administration and works, note issuance and circulation, and control and accounting have been reorganised. In all these changes, the collaboration of the Bank's staff has been excellent. I should thus first thank the Deputy-Governor and the Directors-General for their support and co-operation and, on their behalf, express our profound gratitude to all the Bank's staff for their positive attitude and hard work. Particular acknowledgment is due to all those who, directly or indirectly, participated in the physical introduction of the euro. Without their dedication and effort, the success of the changeover would not have been possible. Finally, let me convey my gratitude to all the members of this Council for their invaluable support and co-operation. Their contributions have been fundamental in ensuring collegiate decision-making, adding depth and quality to the process. 10  BIS Review 38/2002
Dimitar Radev: Addressing underlying issues of cross-border investment in the EU Publication by Mr Dimitar Radev, Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, in "Views The EUROFI Magazine". The magazine were disseminated during The Eurofi High Level Seminar 2017 before ECOFIN, Malta, 5-7 April 2017. * * * We are witnessing a downward shift in cross-border investment in the EU, while the EU current account moved to positive territory in recent years. The savings-investment mismatches, therefore, are at the heart of the conundrum we face in developing the cross-border investment in the EU. Several initiatives to address this issue have been launched, including the Investment Plan for Europe, and the European Long-term Investment Fund. A large-scale new initiative is the establishment of the Capital Markets Union intended to further enhance the mobilization of capital and its channeling to companies and infrastructure projects offering new opportunities for savers and investors across the EU. A few other initiatives are under consideration, including the creation of a European Savings Investment Fund. However, the results of all initiatives have been mixed so far, and cross-border investment is stagnating. Before moving forward we need to better understand the underlying factors behind recent developments. The current initiatives look technically sound, but the lack of sufficient progress in their implementation reveals a number of remaining underlying issues. These include: (i) the unfinished agenda with regard to banking and financial integration; (ii) slow progress in real convergence; and (iii) limited availability of adequate infrastructure and innovation projects.

General Meeting of the OCBF 17 June 2022 Economic and financial situation and outlook in the context of the war in Ukraine Speech by Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor  Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be with you today on the occasion of your Annual General Meeting. Last year, I spoke before you about the outlook for the euro area economy in the wake of the health crisis. Since then, new lockdowns in China and especially the war in Ukraine have created new shocks for the European economy and financial system. Today, I would like to share with you our analysis, at the Banque de France and the ACPR, of the outlook and the resulting short-term, macroeconomic and subsequent macrofinancial risks, which guide our actions as a central bank and supervisor in our mission to preserve monetary and financial stability. I will end my remarks with the longer-term challenges we collectively face, associated with climate change and the digitalisation of finance, which should not be overshadowed by the war in Ukraine and its consequences. These challenges still require resolute and immediate action from all of us, and in this context I will say a few words about the role we can play as supervisors and central bankers to help banks in their transition to a sustainable economy and digitalised finance. 1.