samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
But obstacles to refinancing and access to credit for home purchases are limiting the support provided by low rates to house prices and consumption. Meanwhile, the large supply of foreclosed homes for sale – and the prospect that unemployment and negative equity will continue to feed the foreclosure pipeline – continues to put downward pressure on home values. The risk of further house price declines in turn discourages would-be buyers from entering the market. Continued house price declines could lead to even more defaults, foreclosures and distressed sales, undermining wealth, confidence and spending. Breaking this vicious cycle is one of the most pressing issues facing policymakers.   Next, cutbacks in employment and spending by state and local governments intensified in 2011 and are likely to continue. Looking forward, states are likely to cut spending further as the federal government stimulus aid to states peters out.   In addition, by current law, in 2012 the federal government will end much of the support it has been providing to the economy through stimulus programs. As these measures expire, households will be able to consume less and businesses will have less incentive to invest for a while. Plus, the new Budget Control Act calls for additional sharp cuts in federal spending. Our nation needs to get its public finances in order. Done correctly, with a focus on the long term, this could support confidence and growth. But it is very important to avoid excessive short-term cutbacks or tax increases that could harm the recovery.

Jean-Pierre Roth: Review of the Swiss economy in 2005 and outlook for 2006 Speech by Mr Jean-Pierre Roth, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the General Meeting of Shareholders of the Swiss National Bank, Berne, 28 April 2006. *  *  *  Mr President of the Bank Council Dear shareholders Dear guests  Faltering economic activity in 2005 As we now know from the revised figures for the Swiss national accounts, 2005 was better than anticipated. An economic slow-down became apparent from autumn 2004, but the lost ground was more than regained in 2005 thanks to the strength of our exports. The temporary lull in the economy had resulted mainly from uncertainties following the rise in energy prices. These concerns were further augmented by the fact that part of US refinery production was out of service in autumn. From January to August, the price of crude oil surged by 50% to reach a peak level of some USD 65, before a partial correction set in. As a result, business and consumer confidence was shaken. Demand for capital goods softened while at the same time the growth in consumer demand was slow. Not until the second half of 2005 did unmistakeable buoyancy in economic activity become apparent. The indecisiveness in the economy did not affect all parts of the global economy equally. The United States remained the driving force in the industrialised world, with growth rates maintained close to potential and above the OECD average.
As explained earlier, the transfer of $ billion of OFR to the Government will reduce its deposits with MAS by $ billion. FINANCIAL SECTOR Let me conclude with a quick update on the financial sector. MAS’ various regulatory and developmental initiatives are detailed in the annual report, so I will provide just a high level overview of the sector’s performance. In 2018, the financial services sector did very well, growing at 6.1%.1 This brings the three-year average growth rate of financial services to 4.1%, which is within striking distance of the Industry Transformation Map (ITM) target of 4.3% per annum over 2016–20. In 2019, financial services is expected to grow slower but should continue to outpace the overall economy. Prospects for financial intermediation are mixed, with credit demand weighed down by a slowing Chinese economy, though loans to Southeast Asia are showing a bit more resilience. The picture for insurance is more promising, on the back of growing demand for insurance products catering to high net worth and mass affluent customers in the Asia-Pacific. Growth in asset management will be lacklustre, weighed down by falling market valuations and fee compression. The payments services space should continue to thrive in line with continued expansion of e-commerce activities, both locally and in the region. FinTech-related activities should also continue to grow handsomely, boosted by ongoing digital transformation across the financial sector. Even more heartening than the growth numbers are the jobs numbers for financial services.

Mojmír Hampl: Czechs and Austrians – even closer than they appear Speech by Mr Mojmír Hampl, Vice Governor of the Czech National Bank, at the Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, Vienna, 14 November 2012. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, dear guests, It is a great honour and utmost pleasure for me to speak here today. And believe me, these are not just standard nice opening words. I really mean it. As if there is anywhere I particularly enjoy visiting, it is Vienna and also Austria as a whole. And as the statistics show, the same goes for many Czechs. More than two million of us visit Austria annually, and the number is going up every year, regardless economic circumstances (not the other way around). This is not due solely to the typical and widespread enthusiasm among Czechs for skiing. Many Czechs simply like Austria as a country. It would be hard for me to find a Czech who does not feel good, safe and comfortable here. And it is no accident. So, please forgive me if I do not discuss today macroeconomic trends, the extraordinary synchronisation of economic cycles in our two countries, and factors behind continually rising mutual trade. Much of this will be surely covered in the discussion. There is something else I would like to talk about. I would like to make a personal comment about the closeness of our two countries.
Governance may be seen as the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s social and economic resources for development. We all know that good governance involves setting adequate policies, programs and regulations, which then have to be translated into legislation. As I often say, sustainable development hinges on the consistency of economic policies – there is no substitute for consistent, sound and stability-oriented economic policies. In this context, institutions are central to the way a country is governed and these are the formal and informal rules in a society. As the Nobel Prize winner Douglas North pointed out “the formal rules are set by the state through laws and regulations, while the informal rules come from the culture, history and experience of each society”. Only in the last 10–15 years most economists have discovered good governance – with its four pillars: transparency, accountability, predictability and participation – as a major determinant of economic growth. Thus, economic governance implies the need to ensure stable, transparent and predictable rules that encourage competition and fair access to public services. It is achieved through a country’s public and private sector institutions and the civil society. Moreover, the recent international crisis has underscored the need for an in-depth reform of economic governance at both European and global levels.

Mugur Isărescu: Economic governance in the European Union Speech by Mr Mugur Isărescu, Governor of the National Bank of Romania, at the Conference “Economic Governance in the European Union”, jointly organized by the European Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the National Bank of Romania, Bucharest, 10 June 2011. *  *  *  Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished audience, It is a pleasure be the host of the Conference on “Economic Governance in the European Union”, an event jointly organized by the European Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the National Bank of Romania. We are glad to welcome you all and our special guests: Mr. Gheorghe Ialomiţianu – the Romanian Minister of Finance, Mrs. Elena Flores, Director for Policy Strategy and Coordination in the European Commission’s DGECFIN, Mr. Theodor Stolojan, Member of European Parliament and former Prime Minister of Romania, Mrs. Iuliana Dascalu, Director in the Finance Ministry of Romania, Mr. Hans Martens, chief executive of the European Policy Centre Think-tank and Mr. Daniel Dăianu, Economics Professor, former Member of European Parliament and Finance Minister of Romania. A special note of thanks to my colleagues Deputy Governor Cristian Popa and the Chief Economist Valentin Lazea, who, together with our special guests, have responded to the challenge of debating a hot topic. In these challenging times, economic governance was brought to the spotlight by the recent global economic and financial crisis.
Jean-Pierre Roth: Switzerland and Singapore - small countries as platforms for global business Keynote address by Mr Jean-Pierre Roth, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, at the Swiss Business Association, Singapore, 18 September 2006. *  *  *  Once in a while, the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank do not take place in Washington, as usual, but are held somewhere else in the world. The fact that we are meeting in Singapore this time is a welcome opportunity for me to return to the "City of the Lion". I am happy to be with you today and I would like to thank the Swiss Business Association and Ambassador Woker for hosting this Association lunch. For Swiss people, it is always a pleasure – even a delight – to spend time in this fascinating city. Since Singapore is often referred to as the "Switzerland of Asia" it is particularly interesting for them to make comparisons with their home country. As a matter of fact, I am one of some 50,000 Swiss who visit Singapore each year. 1 Singapore is a unique place with its beautiful skyline, its outstanding location, its pulsating life, and – most of all – its openness to the world. Interestingly, Singapore and Switzerland share many common features. In particular, both of our countries have to deal with surrounding neighbours that are much larger and more powerful.

The latter are a measure of short-term liquidity – the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) – and a structural measure of liquidity risk, the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR). Today, I intend to focus on the leverage ratio and the NSFR. The reason for this is that the Basel Committee has made considerable progress on these measures this year. However, before I do this I would like to briefly describe the risk-based capital requirement and the LCR, as when I speak about Sweden and Swedish conditions later I will cover all of the measures in Basel III. Let’s begin with the risk-based capital measure, which measures a bank’s capital in relation to its risk-weighted assets. This is the part of Basel III that was finalised first and it is already being applied in many parts of the world. The idea is that a bank should have sufficient capital to cover unexpected losses. Compared with previous Basel regulatory frameworks, Basel III entails higher requirements for how much common equity tier 1 capital the banks must have and stricter and more uniform regulations on what may be counted as Common Equity Tier 1 capital that is capital of the highest quality. Basel III also introduces two kinds of capital buffer as a further element of the risk-based capital requirement that could be said to lie “on top of” the minimum requirements. The buffers are intended to provide safety margins before the banks begin to use their minimum capital holdings.
Purchasing power parity and the very long run According to the theory of relative purchasing power parity, the relative price of a basked of goods shall be constant over time and the real exchange rate thus should not show any particular trend. However, as the real exchange rate measured in terms of a Big Mac shows,  exchange rate thus means that it falls. In the example the real exchange rate has gone from 26.7/24=1.11 till 38/21.3=0.56. BIS Review 3/2010  9  the real SEK/USD exchange rate has shown substantial fluctuations. 22 At the same time, it is actually difficult to distinguish any special trend in the real exchange rate in the very long run. Figure 5 Nominal and real exchange rates, SEK/USD, 1913–2009  Note. The real exchange rate has been calculated using the CPI for Sweden and the United States. The real exchange rate has been equated to the nominal for 1913. Sources: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, Statistics Sweden and the Riksbank. Figure 5 shows the nominal and real krona exchange rate against the US dollar during a period of almost 100 years. Here we can see a different pattern from that in Figure 4. In the long term the nominal krona rate against the dollar has weakened, but this has been compensated by inflation being higher in Sweden than in the United States, so that the real exchange rate is in principle the same at the end of the period as at the beginning of the period.

Because of this correction, unit labour costs in the stressed economies have plateaued and are now converging with those in the better performing countries (refer to Chart 4). While unit labour costs in Malta have been lower than in other euro area countries, it is crucial to ensure that higher productivity supports wage growth, thereby safeguarding the country’s competitiveness. Conclusion – Malta as a regional hub In the recent past, our economy was able to attract sectors and niche markets, such as financial and business services, and the aviation maintenance sector. Further investment promotion calls for continued efforts to identify new areas of growth, and to develop a labour force with the necessary skills and qualifications. The financial and other service sectors have been crucial for economic stability and growth. Recent expansion in the financial services sector can serve as a springboard for further development in view of new opportunities in the Mediterranean region. Further diversification of the range of financial and other services will provide opportunities for Malta to develop further as a regional hub for various activities. Proficiency in the English language, a sound legal system, the high standards of the legal and accounting professions and the mantle of EU membership offer fertile ground for those who want to do business here. Certainly, a growing financial sector needs to be supported and protected by appropriate legislative and supervisory frameworks to ensure that potential risks are minimized. Malta has managed to host a relatively large financial sector without exposing itself to excessive risks.
Hopefully 2020 will be the year in which the political deadlock on EDIS will be resolved and a clear roadmap adopted, reflecting timelines and conditions for the various stages of EDIS. Conclusion 4/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  Let me conclude. Today I have explained why Brexit underscores the need to renew our ambition on CMU and complete the work on banking union. The unifying theme of the priorities that I have outlined today is basically risk-taking and risk-sharing among private agents. In a nutshell, both the capital markets union and the banking union provide a framework that encourages innovation and integration. Further work on these agendas will enhance the attractiveness of the EU capital markets on the global stage beyond Brexit. 1 ]See also ECB (2019), Financial Stability Review, May. 2 See European Commission (2019), Press release on High-Level Forum on capital markets union, 10 October. 3 See The Next CMU High-Level Group (2019), Savings and Sustainable Investment Union, October. 4 See CEPS and ECMI (2019), Rebranding Capital Markets Union. 5 See Pires, F. (2019), Non-banks in the EU: ensuring a smooth transition to a Capital Markets Union, SUERF  Policy Note, No 103. 6 See Constâncio, V. (2017), “Synergies between banking union and capital markets union”, speech at the joint  conference of the European Commission and European Central Bank on European Financial Integration, Brussels,19 May. 5/5  BIS central bankers' speeches

All told, we spoke to firms accounting for about three-quarters of current reserves balances. What did we find? Unsurprisingly, different firms thought about their reserves holdings in quite different ways – and no-one used the term ‘demand curve’! Nevertheless, we can build up a picture of demand for reserves by understanding three core drivers of demand, common to all firms. First, at the most basic level, firms hold reserves to meet both expected and unexpected sterling payments during each day. The shape of this demand depends on firms’ business models. Calendar effects are important for retail banks, for example; whereas wholesale banks and gilt-edged market makers are more affected by the ebb and flow of capital markets activity. And access to (and efficiency of) payment and settlement systems can have important implications for the reserves that firms need to hold. So innovations such as the Bank’s RTGS renewal programme14 have the potential to transform demand levels. Second, reserves are an important form of insurance against liquidity outflows over short, but multi-day, horizons. Regulatory rules require firms to hold liquid assets to cover projected outflows over a  14  https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/payment-and-settlement/rtgs-renewal-programme 9  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  9  thirty day period. This doesn’t have to mean reserves – firms could instead hold liquid government bonds, mortgage backed securities or even equities. But, unlike reserves, such assets have to be liquidated in the market before they can be used to meet outflows.
Progress is also evident in our agenda towards becoming the centre for Islamic fund and wealth management. We emerged as the largest hub, with 35% market share and the most number of Islamic funds. The Malaysian Islamic capital market has also gained its pace as a reputable destination for investment, given its wide range of world class financial products. Backed by a robust Shariah screening methodology, more than 70% of total listed securities in the country are Shariah-compliant, thus providing a wide array of selection for investors. Islamic finance has also become part of the growth strategies of global financial players, indicating greater appreciation of its value propositions. A host of global banking players offering Islamic banking services from diversified regions including from Japan; Europe; and the Middle East have also established their presence in Malaysia. A number of our industry players that offer Islamic finance have also ventured abroad to various jurisdictions. Our MIFC Community, with nearly 40 professional ancillary service entities not only provide key services locally, but many serve global demand and have set benchmarks for 1/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  international best practices. These industry developments which I have highlighted have indeed enhanced the depth and breadth of the Islamic financial services industry. Nevertheless, against the onslaught of global challenges that have intensified uncertainties and complexities, there is heightened urgency for the industry to strategically chart its next phase and reinforce its core strengths.

Annual inflation, as measured by the national consumer price index, stood at 1.0% both in the fourth quarter of 2002 and the first quarter of 2003. In April, inflation dropped to 0.7% and amounted to 0.4% in May. This decline is primarily attributable to a basis effect. While inflation of domestic goods has remained fairly stable as of late, inflation of imported goods was relatively volatile. This is a result of oil prices having fluctuated sharply in the recent past. With regard to domestic goods, it is striking that rents have not risen for a while now while prices for other services - particularly public services - have augmented at an aboveaverage rate. The core rate of inflation calculated by the National Bank has stood at slightly below 1% for a while. This year the National Bank began publishing its inflation forecast once every quarter. Our inflation forecast of March 2003 (the dash-dotted green curve in the graph) shows that at that time we assumed, based on a stable three-month Libor rate of 0.25%, that inflation would gradually rise to 2.5% in the fourth quarter 2005. This inflation forecast was based on the assumption that the US economy would see a decisive recovery already from the second quarter of 2003, followed by an upswing in Europe toward the end of 2003. This proved to be too optimistic a scenario. In our latest inflation forecast (red dashed curve) we anticipate a renewed delay in the global recovery of just over half a year.
Along with reflecting the risks, the agreement explicitly acknowledges how important the financial system should be for efficiently channelling the resources needed to transform our economy towards a sustainable model. These two factors, namely the risks and the opportunities and incentives associated with the change in economic model to combat climate change, have grown in significance on international financial agencies’ agendas. Allow me to mention, non-exhaustively, some of these initiatives: - the work on sustainable finance during the last three mandates of the G20, - the establishment of responsible investment principles by the United Nations, - the creation of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, - the establishment of the OECD green finance and investment centre, - the Sustainable Banking Network established by the World Bank, - within the EU, the European Commission’s action plan on sustainable finance - in the central banking and banking supervision environment, the work by the Network for Greening the Financial Sector (NGFS), of which the Banco de España is a member. In sum, the Paris agreement message to involve the financial sector has hit home and is prompting numerous courses of action. 3/5  You will be discussing many of these initiatives at length in the ensuing roundtable. But in the rest of my speech I wish to briefly set out the role the Banco de España, as a central bank and as a supervisor, can perform regarding this collective challenge.

In addition, I should point out that, like the ECB, we resolutely support the initiative recently launched by the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA). As the regulator of rating agencies, ESMA is seeking to establish guidelines so that these entities make public the way in which they incorporate sustainability elements into their valuations. To conclude, allow me to reiterate the importance and scale of the challenge we face. It may sound clichéd; but it is nonetheless true that we are not only talking about our well-being, but the well-being of future generations who may be left with little leeway if we are not sufficiently ambitious. The challenge extends to all agents and sectors, and proof of this is the broad and varied representation here in this room today. The financial sector undoubtedly has a notable responsibility in this challenge. In our capacity as financial authorities and under our mandate, we can and must do everything within our power to properly value, manage and mitigate the risks associated with climate change. The challenge is paramount and the need for coordination – with other national and international authorities – enormous. But I believe that, if we have been capable of structuring an appropriate regulatory response to the international financial crisis, we will also be capable of rising to the challenge here. I think that the measures rolled out from Europe will ultimately be an international reference and standard.