Monetary Policy
Armenian cbank issues celebratory banknotes
Central bank of Armenia plans to put into circulation jubilee banknotes with denomination of 50,000 AMD (more than $90), said Gevorg Tumanyan, the Head of CBA Department on emission transactions and monetary reserves. The new banknotes are to celebrate…
Kuwait cuts rate 0.5 point for 2nd time in a month
Kuwait's Central Bank on Feb 1, 2001, announced a 0.5 point cut in the discount rate for the second time in less than a month, taking it down to 6.25 percent. The bank, which announced the move in a statement to the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA),…
Taiwan cuts interest rates to record lows
Taiwan's central bank made a surprise cut in its two key interest rates by a quarter of a point on Feb 1, bringing them to record lows to boost the island's flagging economy. It cut the discount rate to 4.375 percent and the accommodation with collateral…
Philippine central bank cuts interest rates
The Central Bank of the Philippines has decided to slash its key rates by another 0.5 percentage points in a bid to maintain the differential between Philippine and foreign spreads and to prop up the economy. The move will bring down the central bank's…
West Africa welcomes common monetary institute
The opening of the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) is an onset of a credibility building process to create an acceptable common currency for member countries, local media reported on Feb. 1, 2001.
Goodhart: George should control inflation forecast
The governor of the Bank of England should take full control of the Inflation Report - the central bank's flagship economic forecast - to avoid confusion arising from the disparate input from the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee, London…
US Federal Reserve cuts interests by 0.5%
The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, has cut interest rates by 0.5% to 5.5%. This is the second rate cut during January 2001, as Fed chairman Alan Greenspan seeks to stop the slowing US economy plunging into recession. The Fed took the markets by…
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…
Bank of Mexico confirms 6.5% 2001 inflation target
The Bank of Mexico said on Jan. 31, 2001, it has now fully adopted an inflation-targeting regime and abandoned its previous system of managing monetary aggregates. However, the central bank will continue to use the money market "short" as its main policy…
BoJ deputy gov defends ending of 0% interest rate
The Bank of Japan was not wrong in ending its zero interest rate policy last August, Sakuya Fujiwara, a central bank deputy governor, said on Jan. 31. "Look at the market and economic indicators in the month following the removal of the zero rate,"…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
Turkey 2001 FDI 'at least' $4bn - ctrl bk governor
Foreign direct investments into Turkey this year will total "at least $4 billion," Turkish central bank governor Gazi Ercel said Jan. 29. This "very high" level of funds will come from the sale of assets including mobile phone licenses by mid-February…
Swedish cbank signals steady rates as growth slows
Euro-outsider Sweden's central bank signalled on Jan. 29, 2001, its key repo rate would remain on hold at 4.00 percent, 75 basis points below the euro zone's steering rate, at this week's monetary policy meeting. Riksbank Governor Urban Backstrom said in…
Bank of Israel cuts Feb discount rate 30bp to 7.7%
The Bank of Israel said on Jan. 29, 2001, it would lower its discount rate for February by 30 basis points to 7.7% from 8%, saying inflation would be between 1% and 2.5% in 2001. The move is at the top end of forecasts for a cut of between 20 and 30…
Slovak c.bank says no room now for rate cuts
The Slovak central bank (NBS) said its board had left interest rates unchanged at a monetary policy meeting on Jan. 29, 2001, and that potential risks to consumer price growth left no room for rate cuts at present. The bank board said it did not see…
IMF to start exploratory talks with Romanian govt
The IMF will visit Bucharest in early February to discuss with the newly elected Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase how he plans to reduce inflation, restructure state-owned industries and create a healthier financial-banking system, the daily…
Thai central bank cuts 2001 growth forecast
Thailand's central bank cut its forecast for 2001 gross domestic product (GDP) growth on Jan. 29, 2001, to 3-4.5 percent from a previous projection of 4-5.5 percent, blaming a U.S. economic slowdown and a faltering domestic recovery. "The evident…