economies are more diverse than european economies, they are flexible in ways that can compensate for the loss of independent monetary policy, for example, in their high degree of price flexibility and fast adjustment to economic shocks. it may seem premature to turn now to the technical issues surrounding asian monetary union, but the devil is in the detail. the first set of technical issues involves the exchange rate arrangements themselves, including the transitional arrangements prior to the introduction of a single currency. for example, would asia adopt a basket peg or choose an anchor currency? if a basket, what would be the weights for individual currencies, and would the basket include external currencies, such as the us dollar? if a regional currency is chosen as the anchor, in the same way that the deutschmark was effectively the anchor for exchange rate arrangements leading up to european monetary union, would this be the yen or the renminbi? alternatively, could asia move straight to a single currency? it is increasingly argued that, in a world of liberalised markets, the only viable exchange rate system is either a hard peg ( like hong kong's currency board ) or a free float. soft pegs by their nature are vulnerable to self - fulfilling speculative attacks, as was demonstrated in europe in 1992, mexico in 1994 - 5, and asia in 1997 - 8. europe was able to move gradually to a system of fixed exchange rates with capital controls prior to the introduction of a single currency. but the high degree of capital mobility in a number of key asian economies would make gradual transition in this way more difficult. a further set of technical issues concerns the setting up of, and mandate for, an asian central bank. this would require agreement on the monetary policy objective, country representation, and decisionmaking process of the central bank. most important, the institution would need to be designed so that national interests are kept in check in order to deliver efficient monetary policy making at the regional level. the lesson from europe is that agreement can be reached, but i have to say that the issues are quite daunting. related to this is the question of whether asian governments have the political will to devolve monetary policy to a single central monetary authority. asia is more disparate than europe in its political systems, and it has often been noted that there is less of a tradition of cross - border institutionbuilding here than there is in other regions. it is quite striking, for example, that the approach to free trade agreements so

richard byles : update and outlook for the jamaican economy monetary policy press statement by mr richard byles, governor of the bank of jamaica, at the quarterly monetary policy report press conference, kingston, 21 august 2024. * * * introduction good morning and welcome to our quarterly monetary policy report press conference. we are pleased to be conducting this press conference in montego bay and will, later today, engage in discussions with key stakeholders in the north - western region of the island. bank of jamaica recognises that its policies and operations affect various stakeholders differently. we are therefore committed to maintaining an outreach programme that gives voice to a wide cross section of stakeholders. in kingston, we maintain an active engagement with various private sector groups, including the banking community, for which we have supervisory oversight as part of our statutory mandate. we have also in the past directly engaged with the citizens and businesses of central jamaica. the bank has, in fact, held its quarterly monetary policy press conference in montego bay before, with the last one having been held in may 2017. we will seek to replicate this outreach in other communities over time. i will now speak on the bank's monetary policy, the mpc's recent decision and outline some of the considerations that led to its decision. monetary policy decision the bank's monetary policy committee met on the 16th and the 19th of august and announced its decision yesterday to continue a gradual easing of its monetary policy stance. effective today, the 21st of august, the bank has reduced its policy rate by 25 basis points to 6. 75 per cent. we will also continue to gradually reduce boj's absorption of liquidity from dtis through our open market operations and will continue to strive to preserve the stability in the foreign exchange market. our previous decision, announced on the 28th of june 2024, to gradually reduce the absorption of liquidity, has already resulted in an injection of approximately $ 21 billion into the system and a 105bps reduction in interest rates on boj's 30 - day certificates of deposit. as a consequence, treasury bill rates also fell over the same period. the decision to further ease the monetary policy stance reflects the committee's view that headline inflation is becoming more anchored in the bank's target range of 4. 0 to 6. 0 per cent. while there will be an uptick in headline inflation over the next three to five months ( august to december 2024 ), caused by the impact of hurricane beryl, this