samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
For several years the Bank of England and other UK participants in the international fora argued for a major reform of the international monetary system and the IMF in order to address this issue. The gravity of the present crisis demonstrates the urgency of rectifying both of these deficiencies. In the past year the true scale of the risks taken by financial institutions has become painfully apparent. As losses mount it has become obvious that banks did not have sufficient capital to support their inflated balance sheets. Questions about the adequacy of liquidity have turned into questions about solvency. In response, banks have been trying to raise new capital and shrink their balance sheets. The banking system is in the throes of a difficult and prolonged adjustment to much smaller balance sheets relative to their equity capital – or leverage, as it is known. Leverage ratios of large banks remain at remarkably high levels, and the required adjustment will not happen quickly. I know that bankers around the world realise this. The incentives they face to adjust, in whatever way they can, are now overwhelming. With fresh capital from the private sector difficult to obtain, banks have opted to reduce their lending and that is why the flow of credit to all parts of the economy, here and abroad, has been heavily disrupted. And the credit that is still flowing is available only on materially tighter terms and conditions.

Chart 2: National Bureau of Statistics, China Chart 3: Associação Nacional dos Fabricantes de Veículos Automotores, Brazil Chart 4: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan Chart 5: Bundesbank, Germany Chart 6: Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Chart 7: ONS Chart 8: Baltic Exchange Chart 9: Consensus Economics and Bank calculations  BIS Review 8/2009  1  Governments and central banks around the world responded decisively and boldly with large fiscal injections and cuts in interest rates, and the provision of hundreds of billions of pounds in capital and funding to support banks. The scale and urgency of their actions embodied an audacity born out of pessimism. Tonight I want to ask: what went wrong? How can we limit the impact of the banking crisis on the wider economy? And can we design a better approach to the management of our economy and financial system in the future? So what went wrong? The origins of the crisis lie in the imbalances in the world economy which built up over a decade or more. The entry of the rapidly growing economies in Asia into the world trading and financial systems provided a huge new pool of savings. But their development and exchange rate strategies meant that they were running large current account surpluses. In other words, their domestic saving was more than enough to finance investment at home. Significant amounts were channelled into foreign financial assets.
While reaching consensus is ideal, differing views and preferences would enrich and flourish the critical thinking and independent reasoning to produce a pragmatic ijtihad that is contextualised from practical realities. A dedicated platform for scholars to exchange ideas and perspectives is thus paramount to cultivate greater understanding and to mutually benefit each other. Towards this end, the Bank, through the Roundtable Meeting of Centralised Shariah Advisory Authorities in Islamic Finance (CSAA), will endeavour to achieve this outcome. The Roundtable serves as an important avenue to strengthen connectivity among centralised Shariah advisory authorities to foster mutual appreciation and respect in Shariah, to promote knowledge sharing, and to identify common issues across jurisdictions and explore viable solution. Conclusion It is my fervent hope that this platform today would continue to spearhead a constructive discourse on Shariah issues for greater benefit to the global Islamic finance industry. In closing, I would like to share an inspiring verse in Surah Al-Maidah - “Help one another in acts of piety and righteousness, and do not assist each other in acts of sins and transgression.” Let’s embrace 3/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  this message and together we strive to propagate good courses in commercial conduct and businesses that are beneficial to the environment and society at large, in line with commandment of Allah s.w.t. On that note, I wish everyone an engaging and productive days ahead. Wa billahi taufiq wal hidayah, assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

1 COVID-19 to Add as Many as 150 Million Extreme Poor by 2021 (worldbank.org) 2 COVID crisis to push global unemployment over 200 million mark in 2022 | | UN News 3 www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/06/pdf/inequality-and-covid-19-ferreira.pdf  4/4  BIS central bankers' speeches
The financial authorities within countries, and on a collective basis internationally, may also have a role to play in developing recognised common standards in these arenas of technology and security. The second characteristic deserving our special attention is the nature of the person or company which is offering us banking or payment services over the internet. If we are merely using electronic services provided by our usual bank, which we know to be sound and to be supervised by an acknowledged regulator in a known jurisdiction, then we should be in no more danger of losing our money than we would be by banking with the same bank in the conventional manner, provided of course that both the bank and the regulator have kept pace with the requirements of internet banking, such as in respect of the security aspects discussed already. But it is quite a different story if we are tempted to part with money to some organisation masquerading as a bank, or which actually is a bank but is registered in a jurisdiction with lower supervisory standards than those to which we are accustomed. In Hong Kong, in order to protect the public we already have legislation governing usage of the word “bank”, and governing the advertising for deposits within our boundaries by anyone not authorised to take deposits in Hong Kong. But we cannot protect people from the possible consequences of clicking onto a website in a far-off place which is luring them to part with their money.

Labour market and competitiveness Thirdly, some of the most visible and significant features of the current phase of recovery are the high rate of job creation and the reduction in unemployment by almost half a million people during 2014. The pick-up in employment is partly related to firms’ greater capacity to adapt their working conditions to the cyclical and competitive situation. This environment has helped usher in a period of wage moderation and an adjustment of relative costs relative to the euro area as a whole, which largely explains the gains in competitiveness recently attained by the Spanish economy. Turning to prices, the Annual Report pays particular attention to the factors underpinning the recent disinflationary phase in Spain. The analysis concludes that, beyond the influence the prolonged weakness of spending and the fall in oil prices may have had, there has been greater responsiveness by prices to changes in the economic situation, which might be attributed, at least in part, to the reforms in certain markets and services. Retaining this greater degree of flexibility in price- and wage-setting is vital so that, in the face of adverse shocks, adjustments may be made through relative prices and not at the expense of economic activity and employment, as has traditionally occurred in the Spanish economy in recent recessions. There has likewise been a notably sharp correction of the external imbalance, with external surpluses being attained in the past three years, albeit of a smaller amount in 2014.
Mr. Heikensten talks about monetary policy and the Swedish economy Speech by the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Sweden, Mr. Lars Heikensten, on the occasion of the 1997 Money and Capital Markets Day arranged by The Association of Local Authorities and the Federation of County Councils on 13/3/97. Today I shall be considering this field in terms of three topical issues: - First there is the path of inflation in recent years. In this context I shall dwell on the significance of transitory effects, not just for recent price tendencies but also more in principle. - Next comes the issue of employment. What can monetary policy do to help create new jobs in Sweden? - The third matter is the rule system for monetary policy. What is the point of delegating the management of monetary policy and the task of establishing low inflation to a central bank? In this connection I will also look at various proposals that are being discussed at present for amending the rules for the Riksbank. Inflation and monetary policy Price stability is the Riksbank’s paramount objective, specified in the target of keeping the increase in the consumer price index to 2 per cent, with a tolerance interval of ±1 percentage point. There is a time lag of one to two years before a monetary policy measure has its full effect on inflation. Our discussion should therefore focus on future inflation. But first I want to say something about inflation in the past year.

9  https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/prudential-regulation/publication/2020/pra-statement-on-prioritisation-covid19 9  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  9  Appendix  Chart 1: Corporate spreads and the matching adjustment  Source: BOE calculations using Bank of America Merrill Lynch corporate spreads data, EIOPA technical information  Chart 2: Symmetric Adjustment of the Equity Capital Charge  Source: EIOPA “Symmetric adjustment of the equity capital charge April 2020”. Retrieved from https://www.eiopa.europa.eu/tools-anddata/symmetric-adjustment-equity-capital-charge_en  10  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  10  Chart 3: UK volatility adjustment  Source: BOE calculations using Bank of America Merrill Lynch corporate spreads data, EIOPA technical information  11  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  11
The members of the Council are jointly responsible for making the ECB a success and establishing price stability in the euro area. In this sense they are all in the same boat and nothing is more likely to capsize the boat that a national preference. That, I believe, will characterise what happens in practice. In any event, a distinct, transparent policy right from the start is vital in order to avoid unnecessary uncertainty that could result in exaggerated movements in exchange rates and interest rates. Other components of economic policy  BIS Review 68/1998  -4-  In the long term it is the construction of monetary policy that determines the rate of inflation. In the shorter run, however, price movements are also influenced by other economic factors. Other components of economic policy - that is, fiscal, labour-market and structural policies - therefore have to be constructed so that they support the policy drive for sustainable price stability. If these components do not work, the burden on monetary policy becomes additionally heavy. Economic policy apart from monetary policy will continue to be a national matter in the euro area, even though it is the subject of agreements at Community level. Fiscal policy will still be constructed by the national governments, though to some extent its scope is restricted by the Stability and Growth Pact, to which all the EU countries subscribe. This Pact requires each country to conduct a responsible fiscal policy, defined as achieving a general government budgetary balance or surplus over the medium term.

Today this is the case in just a few countries, of which Sweden is one. Monetary policy’s interaction with fiscal policy will be important, at both national and EMU level, for the perceived credibility and consistency of economic policy in general. A constructive dialogue is therefore needed between the ECB and the governments of the euro countries. The arrangements are not yet clear but an intense discussion of this and other matters is now under way in Europe. The Treaty provides a number of opportunities for contacts between the two spheres. Functional economic structures must also be in place so that the single monetary policy can establish low inflation without eliciting unnecessary economic tensions. A matter of particular importance in this context is the workings of the labour market. A labour market that functions properly reduces the risk of regional unemployment and thereby of political problems that could ultimately pose a threat to the monetary union. Temporary factors  BIS Review 68/1998  -5-  The discussion of the euro’s development has included the point that the introduction of the single currency will trigger widespread portfolio rearrangements, mainly by private investors but also in public reserves. The euro will alter the composition of exchange risks in investors’ portfolios and this could result in flows to restore the degree of diversification. Investors who achieved diversification previously with holdings in German marks and Italian lire, for example, will have to adjust their portfolios when both these currencies are replaced by euro.
According to the literature, the Basel III reforms give rise to capital levels within the range of estimates that point to positive net macroeconomic benefits for society as a whole, as a result of the greater financial stability and enhanced shock-absorbing capacity they provide. 3  Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (2019): “The costs and benefits of bank capital – a review of the literature”, June. 14/29  In short, there is no evidence to suggest that we have gone too far in calibrating the Basel III capital requirements. The priority, therefore, should be for jurisdictions now to apply these standards in full, consistently and within the periods agreed. This is the message reiterated by the G20 leaders, and banks are required to adapt to this new regulatory environment. We must fight against what has come to be known as the “regulatory cycle”, according to which (and there is empirical evidence to confirm this), over time, memories of crises and of their negative effects tend to fade, the pressure of individual interests grows and the temptation to ease regulatory standards increases. Clearly, a different question altogether is the need to ensure a level playing field. In particular, it is important to ensure that the risks associated with the non-bank financial intermediation sector, and those stemming from its interconnectedness with the banking sector, are properly regulated and supervised. This requires, among other things, close monitoring of the regulatory perimeter of the whole financial system, to ensure that market participants operate under the principle of regulatory neutrality.

To do so it takes as its starting point the banks’ end-year balance sheets from the previous year. It defines a baseline macroeconomic scenario, which coincides with the Banco de España projections available at the time the exercise is performed, and another, stressed scenario, which attempts to reflect the effect of the previously identified risks materialising. The difference between the two scenarios reflects the degree of stress of the exercise, which is slightly greater than last year, in step with the increase in perceived risks. 27/29  The results obtained in the latest stress test performed by the Banco de España – published in the Autumn 2019 Financial Stability Report – are generally positive. However, earnings-generating capacity under the baseline scenario does not reflect the effect of the downward revision in the macroeconomic projections made in the Banco de España’s September forecasting exercise. In the baseline scenario, banks generate modest earnings; these do, however, provide for an increase in solvency ratios of almost 1 pp in three years if the dividend distribution pattern observed in the preceding years holds. This would not be enough to abandon the bottom rung of the European solvency ranking, which is why improving profitability and a prudent shareholder remuneration policy are so important. Under the adverse scenario a portion of capital is consumed, but moderately so at the aggregate level, although there is substantial heterogeneity across banks.
Jarle Bergo: The basis for inflation targeting Speech by Mr Jarle Bergo, Deputy Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the Foreign Exchange Seminar of the Association of Norwegian Economists, Sanderstølen, 21 January 2005. Please note that the text below may differ slightly from the actual presentation. The speech does not contain new assessments of the economic situation or of current interest rate setting. The references and the  Charts in pdf-format can also be found on the website of the Norges Bank. *  *  *  In 2004, the Norwegian Finn Kydland and the American Edward Prescott were awarded the Nobel Prize in economic sciences. They received the prize for their theoretical studies in the 1970s on economic policy rules and the importance of anchoring economic agents’ expectations. Norway’s current economic policy, with an inflation target for monetary policy and a fiscal policy rule, is partly based on the insights of Kydland and Prescott. But it is not just theory that has brought us here. Practice and experience over the last 30 to 40 years have perhaps been just as important. In his book “Doctrines and economic management in retrospect”, Hermod Skånland, former Governor of Norges Bank, points out that until the 1980s, the perception that government had to assume responsibility for employment and that borrowing should be inexpensive contributed to both the currency crisis and the banking crisis.1 Today’s economic policy can be seen as a result of a long learning process where academicians and the authorities have contributed.

Mohamed S Fofana: Banking developments in Sierra Leone Statement by Mr Mohamed S Fofana, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, at the launching ceremony of the new Guaranty Trust Bank logo, Freetown, 28 July 2006. *  *  *  Mr Chairman, Hon Vice President, Solomon E Berewa, Hon Ministers, Board of Directors, Management and Staff of the Guaranty Trust Bank (SL) Ltd, Distinguished Ladies & Gentlemen I am pleased to be here with you this morning at the launching ceremony of the new logo of Guaranty Trust Bank (SL) Limited. We are all aware that change is inevitable in a dynamic world. And that change itself is dynamic, which is why we are all gathered here today. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, a logo is a symbol or trademark designed for the clear and easy recognition of an institution by both its clients and its competitors. We in the Banking industry, as indeed the nation in general, have come to identify Guaranty Trust Bank with a particular logo in the recent past. The change from the old logo, which is two small squares flanking Guaranty Trust, to a new logo, which is a big orange square with a small white square at the top right side and GT Bank inscribed at the bottom of the orange square, is welcomed by the Bank of Sierra Leone.
The broken line represents the Riksbank’s forecast  12  Source: The Riksbank  Real repo rate… 4  4  Real repo rate February December  3  3  2  2  1  1  0  0  -1  -1  -2  -2  -3  -3 04  05  06  07  08  09  10  11  12  Source: The Riksbank  BIS Review 23/2009  13  Downward revision in Consensus forecasts for GDP growth 2009 Annual percentage change 7  7  6  6  5  5  4  4  3  3  2  2  1  1  0  0  -1 -2  Japan USA Eastern Europe  -3 08-Jan  08-M ar  -1  Euro area Asia Latin America  -2 -3  08-M ay  08-Jul  08-Sep  08-Nov  09-Jan  Source: Consensus  Sharp fall in orders and exports Annual percentage change, seasonally-adjusted data 35  35 Orders received, export market Exports  30  30  25  25  20  20  15  15  10  10  5  5  0  0  -5  -5  -10  -10  -15  -15  -20  -20 80  82  84  86  88  90  92  94  96  98  00  02  04  06  08  Note.

When I was out ice skating at Norrviken not far from here a couple of weeks ago a metaphor came to mind for the way the Riksbank has to adapt to different conditions as they occur. It should be appropriate in this winter holiday period. Say that the ice you are skating on is good, but seems to become gradually worse the further you go. Then there is no harm in going a bit further – waiting and seeing what happens – as long as you are observant. Perhaps you will change course slightly to be on the safe side. More than that is not necessary. But let us say instead that the ice is suddenly really thin. Then it is no longer a good idea to keep on going and wait and see what happens further ahead. A minor change of course is not enough. If the conditions become really bad you will have to do even more – turn around immediately – to get back onto safe ice. What I am trying to say is not that we are skating on thin ice. What I mean is that decisions are linked to, and must also be assessed on the basis of the situation in which they are taken – what information is available and what one believes lies ahead. Like when you are wondering whether you should carry on skating on ice that may be uncertain. How much do you need to change course for everything to go well?