International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Fischer gives high marks to Bernanke and Draghi
Outgoing Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer believes the world owes a great debt to Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and praises ECB president Mario Draghi; says Israel can live with side effects of QE
Bank of Israel’s outgoing chief, Stanley Fischer, on the challenges of central banking
Stanley Fischer believes his work as governor of the Bank of Israel is done. He tells Chris Jeffery about the reform process in Israel as well as the challenges facing the world economy and the IMF
Policy-maker prudence can't help early warning efficacy, IMF paper finds
Working paper finds parametric early-warning systems are preferable to non-parametric; greater prudence lets policy-makers call more crisis episodes correctly, but at the cost of more false alarms
IMF prescribes faster eurozone progress for both Spain and Germany
IMF teams report progress being made in both Spain and Germany, though sluggish progress on banking union could stop both economies from bouncing back more quickly
IMF gives its verdict on Abenomics
Article IV statement gives ringing endorsement to QQE in Japan; says ‘spillovers' may have adverse near-term effect on neighbours, but will be offset by benefits of economic strength in Japan
New IMF paper finds fiscal consolidation boosts poor country growth in medium term
New VAR methodology leads researchers to conclude that fiscal consolidation hurts low-income countries less, and for a shorter period
IMF paper proposes ‘more ambitious’ benchmark design
Working paper calls current benchmark designs ‘a legacy from history’; proposes own design to better represent actual wholesale funding costs
IMF paper dissects 'remarkably stable’ US inflation
Working paper examines factors behind favourable inflation performance in the US following the Great Recession, identifying three main causes
IMF warns China on rapid growth of social financing
Article IV consultation urges China to tighten prudential standards to rein in fast credit growth and rebalance economy away from investment; growth forecast trimmed again
IMF researcher argues bank competition policy should take aim at TBTF
Developments in advanced economy bank sectors over the last 20 years mean competition policy should concentrate less on increasing competition and more on reducing too-big-to-fail
IMF paper refines measurement of monetary policy transmission
Working paper breaks monetary policy into endogenous and exogenous changes, finding this is an important distinction for explaining variations in policy transmission across banks
IMF says forward guidance could reinvigorate UK monetary policy
IMF statement on UK economy suggests Bank of England provide assurances that rates will stay low until economic recovery 'reaches full momentum', to combat diminishing impact of monetary policy
IMF paper proposes measure of tail-risk events
Study seeks to quantify what constitutes a systemic financial stress event, and tests the resulting metrics on 11 early-warning indicators in Europe and the US
IMF ‘policy book' tackles Mena central bank challenges
IMF's monetary and capital markets department analyses operational frameworks of Mena central banks, and obstacles to monetary policy; urges Basel III adoption
Robert Pringle's Viewpoint: Watch what central bankers do, not what they say
Recent speeches by Ben Bernanke and Mark Carney signal a new phase in the development of central bank rhetoric. The big question is whether they preface a change in policy
Leaked document shows deep IMF concerns about Cyprus bail-out
IMF approves Cyprus support package but leaked 'internal document' exposes depth of reservations about the plan among the IMF's executive board
IMF gives verdict on unconventional monetary policies
Report says unconventional policies seem to have delivered benefits, particularly during acute stress, but cautions that estimation is difficult and effects vary based on a host of factors
IMF research warns Liikanen, Vickers and Volcker could cause instability
IMF economists including José Viñals call for global cost-benefit analysis to assess cross-border impact of national plans to restructure banks
RBI governor finds ‘a lot of scope for improvement’ in IMF advice
Duvvuri Subbarao examines performance of the IMF since the financial crisis, and finds the Fund wanting in a number of areas
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
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'
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
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
