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Kazakhs give details of new strategic oil fund
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Jan. 31 issued a decree setting out details of a special fund to make his resource-rich nation less exposed to changing prices for energy and commodities exports. The official Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper said…
NY Fed extends triparty collateral for repos
The Federal Reserve on Jan. 31, 2001, extended for another year the use of agency debt and mortgage-backed securities as collateral, along with U.S. Treasuries, for repurchase agreements in daily open market operations. The Fed's policy-setting arm…
Banco de Mexico might halt forex reserves buildup
A Banco de Mexico official said on Jan. 31, 2001, the central bank was weighing the cost of continuing to accumulate foreign exchange reserves and was considering halting its monthly auction of dollar options. "We've got to seriously consider if we want…
Irish cbank chief stays on for extra time
The governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, Mr Maurice O'Connell, is to remain in office for almost an extra year. Mr O'Connell, who was due to retire on April 30, 2001, having completed a seven year term, will now stay in his post until the end of…
Nigeria cbank explains MRR rise to 14.5%
The perceived excess liquidity in the financial system, which seems to defy all solutions, has been fingered as the reason why the Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR) was raised from 14 to 14.5 per cent last week, according to reports from the African News…
Ghana's central bank to close all ailing banks
The Bank of Ghana (BOG) has been taking efforts to close down all non-performing banks as part of its on-going activities to inject sanity and seriousness into the banking sector, according to reports Xinhua News Agency. In line with the new measures,…
Isarescu agrees to Romania fin supervisory council
BNR governor, Mugur Isarescu on Jan. 30, 2001, stated he agreed with the idea of founding a banking supervising council outside the authority of the central bank. He told InfoPro that banking supervision has been so far "the weak point of BNR", reported…
Lithuania banks 2000 cap adequacy 16 pct
The Central Bank of Lithuania said on Jan. 30, 2001, the banking sector's capital adequacy at the end of 2000 was 16.42 percent versus 17.63 percent at the end of 1999, still well over the 10 percent minimum. The sector's liquidity at the end of December…
Uganda's Mutebile warns speculators
The Governor, Bank of Uganda (BOU), Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, has warned against speculation in the foreign exchange marke. He said BOU is going to take action against the practice, because it hurts the economy.
ECB-forex reserves almost unchanged at 260.9 bln
The European Central Bank said on Jan. 30, 2001, foreign currency reserves of the euro zone central banks in the week ending January 26 were "virtually unchanged," while its gold holdings were also unchanged. The net position of the ECB and euro zone…
Speech: Pedro Solbes at Euroclear Euro Conference
Pedro Solbes, the Member of the EU Commission Economic and Monetary Affairs, gives a speech to the Euroclear conference titled 'Preparation for the euro cash changeover: state of play and tasks ahead'.
Vacancies on the Court of the Bank of England
The following is a press release issue by the UK Treasury advertising vacancies in the Court of the Bank of England. The Court has a key role in reviewing the performance of the Monetary Policy Committee and managing the affairs of the Bank of England.
Bush says will no longer comment on Fed
President George W. Bush said on Jan. 30, 2001, he had learned his lesson and will no longer comment on actions on short-term U.S. interest rates taken by the Federal Reserve. With the powerful central bank expected this week to cut borrowing costs by a…
IMF OKs Colombia's 2001 economic program- fin min
The International Monetary Fund has approved Colombia's 2001 economic program, including a higher budget deficit goal of 2.8% of the gross domestic product, Finance Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Jan. 30, 2001. "The agreement basically consists of a…
Stock market consolidation to help euro - Reynders
Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said on Jan. 30 that "technical measures" were needed to stimulate foreign investor interest in the euro, singling out further stock market consolidation.Reynders said also that with the introduction of euro notes…
BOK head Chon hints at rate cuts in Feb. 2001
Chon Chol-whan, governor of the Bank of Korea (BOK), hinted on Jan. 29 that the central bank may slash the interest rate next month in a bid to bring the sliding economy to a halt. But, at the same time, he warned of "worrisome" high inflation for 2001,…
Fed meets, seen cutting rates sharply Jan. 31
The U.S. Federal Reserve began a two-day meeting on Jan. 30 amid widespread conviction it will cut interest rates by another half a percentage point to pump life into the world's largest economy.While the meeting started at 9 a.m. (1400 GMT) Jan. 30, an…
Current role of national central banks in the ESCB
This paper by Eduard Hochreiter describes in some detail the tasks currently performed by the national central banks of the Eurosystem, using the Oesterreichische Nationalbank as an example. it does so against the background of the regime shift to the…
Egypt to value pound vs currency basket eventually
Egypt's Economy and Foreign Trade Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali said on Jan. 29 the Egyptian pound would eventually be valued against a basket of currencies, rather than the dollar as now."We are waiting to move to a basket of currencies when the time…
Bank of Canada forecasts 3 percent growth
The Bank of Canada estimates the Canadian economy will expand by 3 percent in 2001 after growing at a rate of 5 percent in 2000, Deputy Governor Sheryl Kennedy said on Jan. 29, 2001. "The Canadian economy has been performing well in recent years and we…
Malawi launches SADC fund for the poor
Malawi has launched an ambitious 15m pound sterling fund for projects targeting the poor in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The Financial Deepening Challenge Fund (FDCF), sponsored by the Department for International Development of the…