Central Banks
Irish plan for distressed borrowers attracts criticism
Central Bank of Ireland encourages cooperation between lenders of secured and unsecured debt to keep distressed borrowers from bankruptcy; Irish League of Credit Unions denounces scheme
Israel cuts rates and buys forex in moves to ward off ‘Dutch disease'
Unscheduled monetary policy decision by Bank of Israel cuts base rate 25bp as central bank launches a forex purchase programme to hold the shekel down after gas finds
Omani central bank unveils SME measures
All banks operating in Oman will have to allocate 5% of credit portfolios to SMEs; prudential and collateral requirements relaxed to encourage lending
IMF paper searches for deeper insight into the output gap
Working paper proposes method of estimating and decomposing output gaps; inflation found to have low weight
Fin paper says hybrid monetary policy regimes are unsustainable
Bank of Finland working paper finds most former Soviet Republics operate without a free-floating exchange rate or hard peg; says hybrid policies are unsustainable
Fed paper investigates decline in US labour market mobility
Study identifies drop in interstate migration since 1980s; attributes fall to stronger internal labour markets rather than demographic or sociological factors
Sri Lanka cuts rates 50bp in defiance of IMF advice
Central bank cuts benchmark interest rate by 50bp to 7% as growth stutters and inflation falls; IMF warned yesterday against ‘further easing of monetary policy in the near term'
Reserve Bank of Australia publishes monetary policy statement
RBA Monetary Policy Statement says cash rate could change further 'to foster sustainable growth and low inflation'
Iceland’s Guðmundsson backs MAS-style stability model
Icelandic governor says managed float and strong supervision are important lessons to be taken from Singapore; says capital controls helped avoid a default in Iceland, but should not be used lightly
Central Bank of Nigeria hits back at ‘unfounded and mischievous’ reports
Central bank denies reports that it destroyed documents demanded in a hearing of the Nigerian parliament’s Public Accounts Committee
Bernanke outlines Fed's ‘intensified' monitoring of financial system
Focus is on Sifis, shadow banking, asset markets, and the non-financial sector, according to the chairman of the Federal Reserve
Ireland’s Elderfield says ‘imperfect’ Solvency II should still go ahead
Deputy governor highlights many imperfections in the Solvency II framework but says it is better than the fragmentation and rising costs that are the alternative
South African paper models international spillovers
Study finds South Africa is a ‘net receiver’ of spillovers from other economies; suggests this is likely to persist as business cycle synchronisation has increased
Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago’s Jwala Rambarran on reform in the Caribbean
Jwala Rambarran has not yet celebrated his first anniversary as governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago – but is already making a splash, writes Tom Bowker
Central banks adopting social media at different paces, finds CBJ study
A new Central Banking journal study shows that institutions around the world are adopting very different approaches in their deployment of social media techniques
FDIC’s Thomas Hoenig on bank separation, safety nets and Basel III
Hoenig tells Christopher Jeffery that Basel III is flawed, universal banks require legal separation, financial safety nets need cutting and monetary policy should move to non-zero interest rates
Central Bank of Iceland’s Már Guðmundsson on crisis management and capital controls
Lessons learned from Iceland’s crisis resulted in the IMF changing its rulebook on the use of capital controls. But the country’s change in fortunes is no ‘miracle’ (scroll down for interview).1
The SSM, banking union and the future of prudential policy in Europe
The establishment of a single supervisory mechanism under the ECB will help mitigate a number of threats to Europe’s financial system, writes Ignazio Angeloni. But still more needs to be done
The Eurosystem has done enough; time for politicians to choose
The Eurosystem has done enough to support the eurozone, says Jens Weidmann, who believes the euro area should either accept fiscal union or allow sovereigns to default
The changing structure of the euro money market
Systematic reports on the European secured and unsecured money market would represent a powerful tool for central bankers despite the current distortions caused by Eurosystem liquidity operations
The case for nominal GDP targeting by central banks
Central banks have experimented with new monetary policy approaches, with nominal GDP targeting the latest idea to be put forward. Richard Werner looks at the empirical data supporting such a policy
China’s new financial and regulatory architects
Keeping Zhou Xiaochuan as governor of the People’s Bank of China will provide policy stability in the world’s second largest economy. But there are plenty of changes elsewhere
Communicating uncertainty in economic forecasts
The way central banks and economists communicate uncertainty in macroeconomic forecasts differs around the world. Charles Manski contrasts the approaches of the Federal Reserve and Bank of England