samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
The BIS international banking statistics is for example being expanded and refined to capture the entire balance sheet of internationally active banks on a consolidated basis, and with greater granularity. On-going initiatives by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to close these information gaps, particularly at the individual bank level for systemically important global banks, are also significant steps in this direction. Another key global trend that has elevated statistical science to a new level is the rapid innovation and advances in information and communication technology. It is staggering that 90 percent of the world’s data was created in this recent two years alone 1. With the rapid expansion of data storage capacity 2, growing global connectivity which includes almost 3 billion internet users worldwide and double-digit growth rates in the mobile broad-band market, there is no doubt that the swift pace of technological developments has not only facilitated the rapid collection of new statistics but also led to more effective measurement of information. Improvements in technology have brought tremendous benefits to most segments of society. Amid the wider availability of information on financial planning products, households now have the potential to make better savings and investment choices. For businesses, the  1  Source: IBM Watson Foundations: http:-01http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/.ibm.com/software/ data/bigdata/. 2  According to IDC, between 2013 to 2020, the “digital universe” which measures all the digital data created, replicated, and consumed in a single year, will grow by a factor of 10– from 4.4 trillion gigabytes to 44 trillion.

At that time the Riksbank was legally responsible for the choice of exchange rate regime and ERM participation was considered simply as a way of preventing the flexible exchange rate regime from becoming a formal obstacle to Sweden's possible full participation in the monetary union. When the Government then judged that there was insufficient public support for Sweden's adoption of the euro, the question of altering the exchange rate regime ceased to be relevant. When the independence of the Riksbank was formalised in 1999, the legislation on exchange rate policy was amended. Today the exchange rate regime is chosen by the Government, while the Riksbank decides on issues of its implementation. So it is the Government that decides if and when the krona is to join ERM2, whereupon the Finance Ministry and the Riksbank discuss the SEK/EUR exchange rate that is compatible with a stable economic development. I want to make it clear that, contrary to the impression one is liable to get from reports in the media, this process is not to be seen as a struggle between the Riksbank and the Finance Ministry. There are extremely good reasons for these two institutions to agree on a joint line of action. Otherwise it is likely to be difficult to argue Sweden's case effectively in the subsequent discussions with our European partners.
Figure 2 GDP and final demand (annual change, percent) 20  20  15  15  10  10  5  5  0  0  -5  -5  -10  -10  -15  -15 04  05  06 GDP  07 08 09 Domestic demand  10  11 12 Final demand  13  Source: Central Bank of Chile. BIS central bankers’ speeches  7  Figure 3 Inflation indicators (annual change, percent) 10  10  8  8  6  6  4  4  2  2  0  0  -2  -2  -4  -4  -6  -6 06  07  08  09  10  11  CPI  12  13  CPIEFE  Source: National Statistics Institute (INE). Figure 4 Real exchange rate (*) (index, 1986=100) 120  120  110  110  100  100  90  90  80  80  70  70  ( )  88 g  90y  92  94  RER  96  98  00  02  1998-2012 average  04  06  08  10  12  1993-2012 average  (*) Includes information up to 27 August. Source: Central Bank of Chile.

From taking prompt action to prevent the economy from overheating to acting just as promptly to avoid deterioration. In this dilemma, we have always opted for a medium- to long-run look over the short-term ups and downs, and therefore considered all the risks involved. So far this has allowed us to properly anticipate events and stick to what we believe has been the right monetary policy. The international conjuncture puts us to the test; we have identified many risks in this area. Over the months they have increased in both variety and origins. We know that we are prepared to face them in the best way possible. It is impossible to be immune. In fact, a small open economy like Chile is always subject to the vagaries of the international economy: it could not be otherwise. However, policy makers should be able to overcome them without major setbacks. There are also challenges within our borders, especially doubts about the evolution of a number of variables, such as employment and consumption, among others. It is precisely this medium- to long-term vision what helps us not to make hasty decisions. We have said that we are ready to take action if necessary, but overreacting to one particular event would be tantamount to throwing away the well-earned credibility of the Central Bank, which is a fundamental anchor to achieve our goal of safeguarding the stability of the price level and the financial system.
Financial services are a critical tool to help people step onto the economic growth ladder and create a brighter future by tapping their own creativity in creating jobs and incomes. It can also be instrumental for broader human development, by letting clients invest in themselves and seek protection from shocks and bad fortune. It is however, gratifying to note that following the survey, commercial banks and other nonbank financial institutions in Zambia have increasingly become receptive to lending to small and medium-sized enterprises and have in this regard established departments dedicated to small and medium enterprise lending and introduced financial products specifically designed to meet the financing needs of these businesses. In working with Banking on Health, banks have shown interest in learning about the private health sector, a sector whose business characteristics were largely unknown to banks. However, banks can still misunderstand the risks, overestimate the costs, and underestimate the potential returns of lending to sectors, such as the health sector. In addition to the structural barriers in the financial sector that limit access to finance, many private health care providers have limited financial and business-management skills and often struggle to prepare a bankable loan applications or business proposals. It is difficult for commercial banks to assess the credit risk of a loan without the financial statements and business plans to support the loan application.

So I’d like to begin by taking an opinion poll! I’d like to put to you two questions. The first is how many of you agree that monetary policy should have the control of inflation as its overriding objective? May I ask all those of you who agree that monetary policy should have control of inflation as its overriding objective, please, to raise a hand. Now please would those who disagree that monetary policy should have control of inflation as its overriding objective please raise a hand. Now let me ask you a second question - and I’m afraid that only those who voted in favour in response to the first question are entitled to vote this time - I don’t want a biased result. Given the objective of control of inflation - the 2½% inflation target - please would those of you who think interest rates should be higher than they are at present raise a hand? Please raise a hand now if you think interest rates are at the right level? And will those of you who think that interest rates should be lower than they are at present now please raise a hand - but remember you can only vote if you agreed that monetary policy should be directed to controlling inflation! Welcome to your first meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee! Your votes will all be individually recorded by the Chairman and published with the minutes in a fortnight’s time!
This has been a controversial issue in the international debate in recent years. In the light of the events of the autumn, this issue will probably become topical again. 8  BIS Review 2/2008

Elsewhere, the new framework for the prevention and correction of domestic and external macroeconomic imbalances has also been designed. This so-called Excessive Imbalance Procedure uses an early-warning mechanism based on a broad set of indicators which, together with timely economic analysis, should help detect sufficiently in advance those situations of vulnerability that may endanger financial stability in the euro area and give form to the measures needed to correct them. Progress in designing a permanent crisis-management mechanism has been considerable but clearly insufficient. First, temporarily, the European Financial Stability Facility was introduced, and later, now on a permanent basis, the European Stability Mechanism was set up, which it is assumed should start operating next July. The complexities involved in the design of these devices are evident, since they must combine strength and flexibility to provide financial assistance to ailing countries, while ensuring that incentives are maintained to pursue the ambitious fiscal consolidation and structural reform programmes needed for laying the foundations for sustained growth in the medium term. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  But exiting the crisis will not be possible unless a stronger European governance framework is accompanied by a far-reaching revision of national economic policies, enabling them to be fully adapted to the conditions under which a monetary union can operate. It is imperative that the authorities and economic agents should fully assume the consequences derived from sharing a single monetary policy. The soundness of public finances and the flexibility of economic structures are vital requirements in this framework.
[S]uch an approach was seen as likely to be relatively simple and efficient to administer, relatively straightforward to communicate, and effective in enabling interest rate control across a wide range of circumstances.”13 The second major issue facing the FOMC is whether to change its strategic framework to mitigate the risk of a return to the effective lower bound for interest rates. Once the federal funds rate is close to zero, the FOMC is constrained in its ability to lower short-term interest rates further, and the other available policy options to provide monetary policy stimulus may be less effective. If the FOMC were unable to provide sufficient stimulus, the economy could have difficulty recovering. In turn, inflation and inflation expectations could fall—and thus raise real interest rates—effectively tightening monetary policy and making the task of generating a sustainable recovery even more difficult. Some have argued that a desirable way to reduce this risk would be to raise the FOMC’s inflation objective from 2 percent to perhaps 3 or 4 percent. Their reasoning is that if the inflation objective were somewhat higher, nominal interest rates at the later stages of the business cycle would also tend to be higher, which would provide greater scope for the FOMC to cut short-term interest rates to stimulate the economy, if necessary. 4/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  While recognizing that there is a legitimate effective lower bound risk, I do not support the option of raising the inflation objective, for three reasons.

Debt service costs will move sharply upward in coming years as federal debt continues to grow and interest rates likely increase further. Additionally, entitlement spending is likely to increase sharply as members of the baby boom generation continue to retire —myself included.7 The shift toward a more aggressive U.S. posture on trade also likely increases uncertainty. On the one hand, such a posture could lead to revised trade agreements that provide the United States with greater access to foreign markets and better protection of intellectual property. This would tend to raise U.S. productivity and real GDP growth. On the other hand, tougher bargaining could lead to retaliation and higher trade barriers, here and abroad. In contrast to the first scenario, this outcome would be quite negative—leading to higher inflation, lower productivity, and slower potential GDP growth. 8 Over time, how U.S. trade policy evolves will have important implications for the performance of the U.S. economy—and, by extension, for U.S. monetary policy. By increasing uncertainty around the economic outlook, these shifts in fiscal and trade policy could make it more difficult for the FOMC to achieve its dual mandate objectives in the years ahead. Longer-term monetary policy issues Over the longer term, the FOMC will also need to address a number of other important issues.
The still weak annual growth rate of bank loans to the private sector conceals the fact that monthly flows have now been positive for a number of months. At the same time, these aggregate developments continue to reflect mainly an ongoing strengthening in the annual growth of loans to households, while the annual growth of loans to non-financial corporations  2  BIS Review 80/2010  has remained negative. A lagged response of loans to non-financial corporations to economic activity is a normal feature of the business cycle. The latest data confirm that the reduction in the size of banks’ overall balance sheets has not continued since the turn of the year. However, further adjustments cannot be ruled out and the challenge remains for banks to expand the availability of credit to the non-financial sector when demand picks up. To address this challenge, banks should turn to the market to strengthen further their capital bases and, where necessary, take full advantage of government support measures for recapitalisation. To sum up, the current key ECB interest rates remain appropriate. Taking into account all the new information which has become available since our meeting on 6 May 2010, we continue to expect price developments to remain moderate over the policy-relevant medium-term horizon. Global inflationary pressures may persist, while domestic price pressures are expected to remain low. The latest information has also confirmed that the economic recovery in the euro area continued in the first half of 2010, but quarterly growth rates are likely to be rather uneven.

But just as a town ravaged by flooding will seek to rebuild in ways that help it withstand the next big storm, so, too, must we think about how to shore up the Treasury market so it can better endure the next big shock. Today, I’m going to touch on the notable market disruptions that have taken place over the past decade. Then, I’ll discuss the imperative of a resilient Treasury market. I’ll close by challenging all of us to come together to prepare for the future. As always, before I continue, I must give the standard Fed disclaimer that the views I express here today are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Open Market Committee or others in the Federal Reserve System. Look Back to Prepare for the Future A well-functioning U.S. Treasury market is critically important for our economy and, in fact, the entire world. It enables the safe and stable flow of capital and credit to households, businesses, and governments. It serves as a primary benchmark for pricing in other financial markets, both domestic and global. Last, but definitely not least, it’s vitally important for the effective transmission of monetary policy to the broader financial system and to the economy. Thankfully, most days—most years—the Treasury and related markets function incredibly well. But in the past decade, these markets have experienced three abrupt and notable disruptions, each of increasing severity.
These challenges include infrastructural deficiencies in transport, telecommunications and energy, the small market that Zambia presents, constraints to doing business, enduring perceptions of corruption, inadequate skills and talent management. Although the country has seen increase in investment in many sectors such as construction, agriculture and the financial sector, copper remains the major focus of foreign investment. But over-dependence on natural resource wealth and the related commodity prices is not a very sustainable route to growth. This consideration brings into focus one aspect that this workshop should address, that is the need to encourage private investment across many sectors. The country must diversify in such a way that it reduces its present dependence on copper and draws strength from other sectors. We all know the effects of over-reliance on the copper exports on our economy. It remains a source of vulnerability due to price fluctuations in the international market, making the country’s incomes highly volatile. Apart from private investment being a stimulus for job creation, development of local suppliers, skills transfer; it can be a critical source of long-term capital for driving economic diversification. I urge you to reflect on all these issues so that the final document that is produced from this effort will be comprehensive and point to viable strategies that will promote economic diversification through directed private investment. The end result of this workshop will be posted on the website of the Bank of Zambia and Zambia Development Agency.

If a business manager is told that she “owns the risk,” she may feel empowered to ignore or otherwise shut out other key stakeholders and control functions. After all, if she truly owns the risk, then why does she have to listen to anyone else? This is obviously wrong. Lawyers and compliance professionals, for example, should be part of an ongoing conversation about risk management. Or, conversely, if those lawyers and compliance professionals do not themselves share some stake in the risk, they may not feel that speaking up or challenging a position by the business line is worth it. After all, the business line “owns the risk” and they (the lawyers or compliance officers) do not. What’s more, certain types of risks, in certain types of contexts, do not fit neatly into the “own the risk” model. Reputational risk is an example. Firms often discover, to their dismay, that reputational risk cannot be neatly contained within one business line, or even within one organization. In a sense, it would be better to think of certain types of risks as shared, with shared accountability, rather than owned. In short, it is important to remember that risk management is a means to an end. Who “owns the risk” is not as important as clearly understanding how that risk may inhibit an organization from fulfilling its purpose or achieving its goals, and clearly understanding how that risk is being managed. That does not mean that responsibility should be unattributed or entirely diffuse.
The high penetration rate affirms mobile phone networks as an increasingly popular channel for Malaysians to perform a plethora of activities beyond voice communication, encompassing all forms of digital communication, commerce, banking and payments. Indeed, payments via text messaging has the potential to grow in importance. With 25 million mobile phone subscribers in Malaysia, there are immense opportunities to leverage on mobile phones to accelerate the migration to electronic payments, to widen the reach and appeal of electronic payment services, to deliver innovative mobile payment products that offer speed, simplicity and convenience at minimal cost for the public, as well as to provide an efficient and cost-effective method of delivering financial services even in the remote areas. Also of significance is the high level of financial inclusion in Malaysia. With a population of 27 million, the banking system in Malaysia has 55 million deposit accounts indicating that a high percentage of the population have deposit accounts with the banking system. This is confirmed by a survey of a sample of 5,000 in 2003 that indicated 97% of those surveyed have a bank account. The financialisation of savings is also confirmed by the high percentage of deposits to GDP at 152%. The high percentage of mobile phone subscriber and the high rate of participation of the population in the banking system are important pre-conditions for the significant use of the mobile phone as an ideal platform for personal payments.

This will also include engagement with the market participants, payment service providers and industry players to collaborate in these important areas. Finally, for mobile payment products to succeed and achieve widespread acceptance, we need to strengthen consumer confidence in the safety, security and reliability of mobile networks as a means for consumers to access financial services. Indeed, mobile digital signature, which ensures the confidentiality, authenticity and integrity of payments initiated from mobile phones, is one of the ways forward towards building a secure mobile infrastructure that is conducive for the delivery of financial services. Conclusion We are now operating in an environment where we have to do more with less. The point I would like to stress this morning is that in the pursuit of this cause, we have to learn to work  4  BIS Review 69/2008  together. We need to come together to decide how this cooperation can be shaped. I believe this symposium will contribute towards achieving this objective. In this regard, I hope that the results of your deliberations in this symposium will provide valuable input for the formulation of strategies and modalities for both the industry and authorities. On that note, I would like to thank Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission for this opportunity to share my thoughts on electronic payments. I wish you a stimulating and productive discussion in this symposium. BIS Review 69/2008  5