samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
We need to be proactive. Accordingly, we are also launching several initiatives to help raise awareness of the importance of this issue, including workshops and meetings with the industry to learn more about how the sector is coping with climate change and to promote its transformation. There is certainly much to be done. But, to conclude on a positive note, I wanted to highlight the incredible pace at which initiatives are moving and changes are being introduced. Let me give you two examples. First, the NGFS was created barely two years ago, but in this very short lifespan it has managed to publish two comprehensive reports, guidance for central banks’ investments and, not least, its membership has surged from 8 to 51 members and 12 observers. The second example is rather obvious: just look at the composition and topics discussed on this panel today. They would have been quite unthinkable two years ago. Thank you very much. 5/5

It would be prudent to assume that requiring banks to hold more capital and higher cost capital is likely to result in somewhat higher lending spreads. Bank managements will need to generate sufficient income to support the rate of return on equity at a sufficient high level so banks can continue to attract capital from investors. Of critical importance is whether the increase in lending spreads is likely to be large or not. Those who argue that the new capital standards will necessitate a large increase in lending spreads generally start with a rigid set of assumptions. These include: 1) Return on bank equity is unchanged; 2) the increase in bank equity does not affect funding costs; and 3) there is no change in the banks’ book of business or on banks’ ability and willingness to adjust other expenses, such as compensation. Such rigid assumptions are unrealistic. This is particularly important because each assumption is likely to be wrong in the direction that reduces the impact on lending margins. First, the necessary return on equity that banks will have to generate to be able to attract  BIS Review 131/2010  5  capital will likely fall. Because banks with more capital should be safer and have less volatile earnings, investors should demand a lower return on equity than before. Second, by increasing the soundness of banks, an increase in bank equity, everything else equal, should also reduce funding costs.
Central banks evolved in response to this vulnerability, which gave rise to a readiness to act as lender of last resort to the banking system in situations in which substantial systemic disturbance could otherwise occur and to an on-going concern for the macro-prudential characteristics of the banking system. And while this concern relates to the banking system as a whole, last resort assistance, when it is judged to be necessary, is extended to individual banks because problems of course arise in the first instance at the level of the individual bank. Now, the fact that central banks (in conjunction as necessary with governments) are prepared, in certain circumstances, to extend support in this way encourages bank intermediation; it represents in effect a form of subsidy, implicitly justified as being in the wider interest of the economy. It helps to preserve public confidence; and it enables the banks to take on more maturity transformation or risk than they could otherwise, so lowering the effective cost of their intermediation. But it has long been recognised that if central bank support is made available too liberally - in situations where there is no genuine systemic risk, so that it comes to be relied upon as a matter of course, then that would give rise to moral hazard. The extent of bank intermediation would be unjustifiably expanded.

In this latter context banks have traditionally played a key role in financing the corporate and household sectors, earning their return by gathering information about, and assessing and monitoring, the creditworthiness of private sector borrowers, especially those who do not or cannot cost-effectively provide the comprehensive, public, information that would allow them to access the capital markets. Much of the banks’ lending, while nominally at short-term, for example in the form of callable overdrafts, is in practice illiquid and non-marketable. So a further  BIS Review 13/1997  -2-  distinctive characteristic of banks is that they typically function with a mismatch between their highly liquid liabilities and their less liquid, non-marketable, assets. There is no need, I think, to labour the importance to the economy as a whole of these distinctive banking functions, or the damage that would be caused if the banks’ role - as the repository of liquidity, as the core payments mechanism, and as the principal source of finance to at least a large part of the economy - were seriously interrupted. That in itself helps to explain the public interest in the effective functioning of the banking system, or why banks collectively have been regarded as special. But beyond that, the distinctive banking characteristics that I have described, of liquid liabilities and less liquid assets, give rise to special needs. Given the banks’ role in the payments system they may need late access to liquidity to square their positions vis-à-vis each other after executing payments instructions on behalf of their customers.
In France, credit to the private sector continued to advance at a sustained pace, posting a year-on-year increase of 9.3% in October. The annual growth rate of total domestic debt was 5.7% in October. In the course of the year, the various components of the second pillar signalled upside risks to price stability. This was true for the indicators for supply and labour markets, the continuing rise in oil prices and the protracted depreciation in the euro’s exchange rate, which have exerted or continue to exert upward pressure on import, production and consumer prices. As regards the exchange rate of the euro, which is an important monetary policy indicator, both the Monetary Policy Council and the ECB Governing Council are convinced that the external value of the euro does not reflect the euro area’s favourable situation and future prospects. This sentiment is shared by the Eurogroup, which agreed with the European Central Bank in Versailles that "a strong euro is in the interests of Europe". This phrase is the most concise and clear statement of Europe’s position with respect to the external value of the euro. Moreover, the G7 also concurs with the Eurosystem’s analysis. On 23 September, following the concerted intervention on foreign exchange markets on 22 September, the G7 expressed "the shared concern of the Finance Ministers and the Governors about the potential implications of recent movements in the euro for the world economy". Financial stability In Europe, price stability is the statutory responsibility of the central banks, that is, the Eurosystem.

The latest Banque de France survey shows that the capacity utilisation rate has reached a record high. This state of affairs makes the recommendation issued by the Council over the past four years more appropriate than ever: “Now is the time to invest”. •  lastly, actively seek improvements in productivity, which lie at the very heart of economic growth by embracing technical progress, the digital revolution, the new information and communication technologies, biotechnology and material sciences and by promoting a high level of research and development in the productive sector in France as well as Europe. This openness to technical progress and rapid productivity enhancement is one of the keys to maintaining low inflation and a long-lasting growth, which is vibrant, sustainable and creates jobs. *  *  *  This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what I wished to say about monetary policy and the French and European economies as we stand on the verge of the year 2001. May I draw your attention to the press kit that will be handed out to you. It contains documents that should prove very useful to a sound understanding of the economic and monetary situation, in particular the charts on production bottlenecks and recruitment difficulties. I would also like to point out the one hundred questions-andanswers on the changeover to the euro. These should provide individuals, professionals and the specialised press with clear and accurate information on any questions that may arise regarding the challenging events that await us in the years 2001 and 2002.
The progress in the ICT is also one of the main factors explaining why the American economy has developed at a far faster rate than the economy of the euro area in the past ten years. The research results available 3 show that labour efficiency in retail and wholesale trade in the United States has grown many times faster than in Europe, inter alia due to the use of the ICT in those sectors. The American Wal-Mart, the biggest global supermarket network, has implemented the new radiofrequency identification technology (RFID) for the purpose of further enhancement of the network performance and reduction in the logistics-related costs. So will have to do most of Wal-Mart’s suppliers. The above examples demonstrate the way that the progress in the e–economy facilitates global optimization of the manufacturing process, this contributing to a rapid growth in efficiency, improved quality, and reduced prices, and thus offering far-reaching benefits to consumers. It has turned out that although Poland is at the bitter end when it comes to readiness to implement the e-economy, the position of the Polish economy is high in most of the rankings concerning the investment or offshoring 4 attractiveness, whereas our chief advantages include a favourable location, a large market, and well-qualified and relatively cheap workforce. Therefore, owing to the process of globalization of manufacturing and services, Poland may stand a chance of rapid growth, provided that our chief shortcomings, including the poor advancement in e-economy and e-administration, are remedied.

21 We can imagine the scale of possible savings if we consider the data published by the United Arab Emirates, which read that 45,000 transactions monthly are executed online only in Dubai, whose population slightly exceeds one million. 22 The benefits of e-administration development can also be demonstrated in financial terms — it has been estimated that companies in the European Union save approx. 10 euro under VAT on each online transaction 23 , whereas the research conducted for Trade-Net in Singapore shows that time of issuing the commercial permits online, reduced to one minute, has enabled business people to save approx. 1bn US dollars. 24 The more revolutionary the services are, the more advanced the technology and the greater back office integration of databases are. Without going into technical details, it means that enhanced quality of public services coincides with the increased risk related to the protection of privacy and commercial information. There is no doubt that confidence of the society is a key element of e-administration development because it has a significant role in determining the demand of citizens and business community for e-administration services. Lapses and mistakes made in the past by administration authorities in various parts of the world prove that upon designing and implementation of eadministration solutions, the safety of data and information as well as the ability to ensure privacy must be among the issues of top priority. In some countries, they have actually been incorporated in the vision of e-administration development.
Page 19 of 19 But nobody, from central government to various locally elected representatives, appears ready to give up ground. Is it illusory, for example, to dream of the principle of one entity being in charge of one area of expertise? It may be instructive to take a look at how the Germans make their federalism work in practice. *** To conclude, yes, there is still hope... because, as Paul Éluard so aptly put it, "There is another world, but it is inside this one"... especially if we combine a number of ingredients – in which I firmly believe – to cure our current democratic malaise. (i) First, a long-term perspective and perseverance, free from shorttermism; (ii) a focus on ex-post results, rather than merely surrendering to the tyranny of media announcement effects; (iii) clarity of responsibilities and management autonomy, rather accumulating expertise and creating ‘rival power bases'; (iv) and mutual enrichment between academic reflection and economic action - I see this as a positive thing for monetary policy, and I hope it will be for transforming public services. And what better place for believing in these things than right here in the Académie des sciences morales et politiques? Thank you for your attention. Page 20 of 19 Sauvé, J.M., Où va l'État ?, Speech, Conseil d’Etat, 8 April 2013. de Tocqueville, A., L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856).

At the same time, when looking at accumulated unit labour cost changes we observe that a number of economies which lost cost competitiveness also experienced a loss of market shares, less gains in job creation and/or deteriorating current account position. Despite the decline in the euro area average unemployment rate over the last few years, unemployment remains too high in several countries and regions of the euro area. In these countries and regions, wage increases should not fully exhaust productivity gains in order to provide incentives for firms to create additional jobs. In this respect, sufficient wage differentiation is also required to improve the employment opportunities for less skilled workers where there is high unemployment for this category of employees. The extent to which an increase in nominal wage growth leads to upward pressure on inflation depends crucially on trend labour productivity growth. Under normal circumstances, stronger labour productivity growth would justify an increase in nominal wage growth, thus allowing wage earners to participate in economic growth without adding to inflationary pressures. But for the same reason, without sustained improvements in labour productivity higher nominal wages would not lead to improvements in real purchasing power, but fuel inflationary pressures. Importantly, industries are characterised by different productivity developments. Therefore, wage setting should allow for sufficient wage differentiation and agreements in one industry or sector can not readily be transferred to others. BIS Review 52/2007  1  Those are the reasons whey the Governing Council calls for a high level of responsibility from social partners.
It sets minimum not maximum capital requirements, and it envisages the use of countercyclical capital buffers set by national regulators. Until we find a solution to the “too important to fail” problem, the size of our banking system will remain too large for the UK taxpayer credibly to support in future. London is a natural home for an international banking system, with its language, time zone and, most important of all, a large and successful critical mass of banking and supporting activity. But it cannot be allowed to benefit from an unsustainable dependence on the UK taxpayer. To allow that would be unfair to millions of people, not here tonight, who are now bearing the costs of the financial crisis. It is precisely because we do want to be an international banking centre with assets a multiple of annual UK GDP that we have to find a solution to the “too important to fail” problem. A resilient banking system is in the collective interest of the financial services industry. A robust solution will surely involve a combination of limits on the leverage of individual financial institutions (as envisaged in the Basel III agreement), a resolution framework for allowing individual institutions, no matter how large, to fail, and a change in the structure of banking. I await with interest the final Report from the Independent Commission on Banking. The style of regulation will also change with the PRA. Process – more reporting, more regulators, more committees – does not lead to a safer banking system.

I regret to say that the present Governor neither has the power to command a private railway station nor would he know where to put it if he did. My Lord Mayor, you will see that there are indeed many challenges for economic policy. We have to pass through turbulent waters. But we have set the right course. There is an appropriate policy mix to rebalance the UK economy and reach a new equilibrium. With the Financial Policy Committee there is a new body responsible for monitoring and, more importantly, responding to risks to the financial system as a whole. And a new approach to prudential supervision will be implemented by the Prudential Regulation Authority. If we stick to this course, adjusting the tiller in response to changing conditions, I am confident that we shall return to both price and financial stability. Lord Mayor, all of us here tonight would like to pay tribute to your charitable work since you became Lord Mayor. Your personal involvement in the regeneration of Spitalfields, and the Lord Mayor’s Appeal in support of disaster relief and to help children and young people in need, are a demonstration of the charitable instincts of the City of London. We salute you for that leadership, and I am sure that everyone here tonight thanks both you and the Lady Mayoress for the splendid hospitality which you have extended to us all this evening.
However, the market also has some inherent weaknesses, as it is undeveloped and illiquid, at the same time as many companies lack credit ratings. The weaknesses came up to the surface in March last year, as the pandemic entailed a crisis that directly affected companies. This caused their financiers to review their holdings of commercial paper. Last spring, some funds were forced to stop trading for a period. 27 Yields on corporate bonds soared (see Figure 7). At the same time, there was a risk that the crisis would spread to the covered bonds market, as these were easier to sell when liquidity was needed. We also assessed that there was a risk that the problems on the corporate bonds market would make larger companies reduce their bond borrowing and turn to their banks to  26  See, for instance, Sveriges Riksbank (2017b). 27 See Wollert (2020) for a description of the market for corporate bonds in Sweden during the crisis. 9 [20]  borrow instead. In this way, the banks’ lending to larger companies risked squeezing out lending to smaller companies. The large toolbox has been a decisive factor. As we have seen events, it was a question of retaining the level of stimulation in monetary policy rather than increasing it. This meant that the monetary policy conducted earlier, with a policy rate at zero and purchases of government bonds, needed to be supplemented with new measures to reach companies and households in the desired manner.

In this point, I should emphasize that we expect and encourage more interest by home and foreign academics for this series of seminars. I invite the academy and all the researchers to consider this invitation as a repeated one and become more and more active in discussing the strategies and development of economic policies. The Bank of Albania is entirely open and invites all the stakeholders to boost this cooperation. Today’s workshop represents in itself a concrete example of interest for cooperation between the parties and of our aim to boost it further. Moreover, distinguished personalities from the finance and the academia have been present in various lectures, workshops or conferences. I am personally involved in this open discussion through a cycle of lectures held in the Albanian universities and in eminent and prestigious European universities. Young economists who represent the future and a key basis of human capacities should be also encouraged to do economic research. We aim at establishing a culture of research and of a supportive structure with new elements that do have not only the desire but also the necessary knowledge to study the economic phenomenon. To this purpose, the Bank of Albania organizes annually the Governor’s Award for the Best Diploma, which encourages the students of economics to carry out economic research, mainly focused on the areas of a central bank’s activity. In conclusion, I encourage you to consider the benefits deriving from the useful critics and recommendations during this workshop.
According to our assessment, the strong growth in these markets over recent years has given rise to vulnerabilities, and risks to financial stability have increased. In today’s speech, I would like to explain in more detail the SNB’s perspective on risks in the Swiss mortgage and real estate markets. First, I will describe how our perspective on these markets can be explained by our mandate, and how we fulfil our remit in this area. I will then outline our assessment of current developments. In doing so, I would like to show why, over the past ten years, the SNB has repeatedly warned of vulnerabilities on the mortgage and real estate markets and contributed to measures aimed at containing the associated risks. Why the SNB takes an interest in mortgage and real estate markets As mentioned before, the SNB’s interest in the mortgage and real estate markets is closely linked to our task of contributing to the stability of the financial system. Financial stability means that financial system participants, such as banks and financial market infrastructures, are able to perform their key functions and are resilient to shocks. These key functions include lending and payment transactions. Our tasks have always required us to take an interest in and a shared responsibility for a stable financial system. 2 Let me illustrate this by highlighting two points: First, a stable financial system is a prerequisite for us to be able to perform our core task, which is to conduct monetary policy.

These measures include, for example, the Federal Council’s decision in 2012 to increase the capital requirements for mortgage loans with a high LTV ratio, i.e. a high ratio of the mortgage loan to the value of the pledged property. Furthermore, banks’ selfregulation rules were revised and tightened in the years 2012, 2014 and 2019, which, in particular, imposed more stringent requirements regarding the amortisation of mortgage loans and own funds brought in by borrowers. An important factor was also the activation of the CCyB in 2013 and its subsequent increase to 2% in 2014. The CCyB was deactivated last year. This decision was made against the backdrop of the coronavirus crisis in order to  Page 10/12  broaden the scope for banks to lend to companies in these exceptional circumstances – in spite of the existing vulnerabilities on the mortgage and real estate markets. The measures implemented between 2012 and 2019 were important to strengthen the banks’ resilience and curb the increase in vulnerabilities. 12 They could not, however, fully prevent the rise in risks. The current situation will therefore continue to demand our full attention. I would like to highlight two reasons: First, current price developments in the residential property sector show that there is no reason to sound the all-clear. As outlined in our Financial Stability Report published in June, the coronavirus pandemic has not slowed down price momentum. On the contrary, price growth in the residential real estate market has in fact increased.