Europe
ECB predicts eurozone recovery
In its May bulletin published on Thursday 15 May, the ECB said "Looking ahead, a gradual strengthening of real GDP growth is expected to start later in 2003 and to gather more pace in the course of next year", according to the Financial Times
Germany sparks row over bank watchdog
Bundesbank president Ernst Welteke is reported by the Independent newspaper to have said on Tuesday 13 May that Germany rather than London should house the new supervisory regulator for banking in Frankfurt because of the proximity to the ECB and because…
'The central bank that has missed the point'
The ECB's new monetary policy strategy has not impressed Professor Paul De Grauwe. In an article in the Financial Times he calls the moves an anticlimax with the ECB creating confusion instead of clarity. He suggests the eurozone central bank come up…
Annual Report of the ECB's Anti-Fraud Committee
The Annual report on the activities of the Anti-Fraud Committee of the European Central Bank has been published, covering the period from March 2002 to January 2003.
IMF Working Paper - The ECB's Money Pillar
In the IMF Working Paper 'The ECB's Money Pillar: An Assessment' Albert Jaeger discusses the case for a money pillar in the European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary policy strategy. The Paper says effective communication of the ECB's monetary policy…
IMF Working Paper - The ECB's Inflation Objective
IMF Working Paper 'The ECB's Inflation Objective' by Mads Kieler. The ECB's objective of medium-term inflation below 2 percent has been portrayed by critics as ambiguous, asymmetric, and excessively stringent. This paper attempts a comprehensive…
ECB opinion on appointment to the Executive Board
ECB Opinion on the appointment of a member of the Executive Board of the ECB, 30 April 2003.
EC transfers payments system observatory to ECB
The electronic Payment Systems Observatory has been successfully transferred from the European Commission to the European Central Bank, 30 April 2003.
Papademos presents the ECB's Annual Report
In his presentation of the ECB's Annual Report 2002 to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament Lucas Papademos said one of the main messages of 2002 has been that the euro area economy needs to become more flexible and…
European Central Bank - Annual Report 2002
The European Central Bank has published its Annual Report for the year ended 2002. The report suggested Greece, France and Italy are not expected to reduce their deficits sufficiently by the end of this year, providing a warning to those countries to…
Hamalainen on challenges for retail banking
In a speech on 'EU accession - challenges for retail banking' Sirkka Hamalainen of the ECB said the ECB has assessed the payments infrastructure in the acceding countries and found it sufficiently robust to ensure that it will not generate systemic risks…
First five years of the ECB
Commenting on the fifth annual report of the ECB presented to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs by ECB vice-president Lucas Papademos, Committee Chair Christa RANDZIO-PLATH (PES/Germany) said that the ECB and European Monetary Policy both…
Tumpel-Gugerell new ECB Board Member
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs gives ll clear for Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell as new ECB Board Member, 29 April.
Support for Tumpel-Gugerell
Unanimous Support for new ECB Executive Board Member, 29 April.
Duisenberg heir need not be French, lawmaker says
Christa Randzio-Plath, chairwoman of the European Parliament's monetary committee, has said that Wim Duisenberg's successor at the ECB does not have to be French, commenting "We have not only to look at nationality", according to Bloomberg News.
ECB warns SARS more damaging than war
In an interview with Spanish newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, an executive member of the ECB, said the negative impact of the Iraq war could be outweighed by the effect of the SARS virus.
ECB's Duisenberg implies he will leave in a year
The European Central Bank published its annual report for 2002 on Tuesday with Wim Duisenberg hinting that he would not be at the ECB this time next year. "This will be the last foreword of an ECB Annual Report to bear my signature," he said in the…
CentralBankNet Monday Special Feature
SPECIAL FEATURE - In this week's Special Feature CentralBankNet presents extracts from an exclusive interview with Professor Manfred Neumann of the University of Bonn. In the interview Professor Neumann spoke to Central Banking journal's Editor Robert…
Ensuring a balanced ECB Executive Board
On Tuesday 29 April at 9.30 , the Committee of Economic and Monetary Affairs will be holding a Confirmation Hearing of Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell who has been nominated by the Council of Ministers as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central…
Solans on the ECB's Memorandum of Understanding
Eugenio Domingo Solans of the European Central Bank spoke of the close cooperation between the ECB and the European Commission (Eurostat) at the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding on Economic and Financial Statistics.
EU central bankers may face EFC sidelining
A proposal has been made to exclude central bankers from some discussions of the influential Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), according to a report from Online. The proposal is designed to prevent the EFC from becoming unwieldy after 10 more…
Duisenberg to stay at ECB until successor ready
ECB president Wim Duisenberg has formally agreed to stay on at the euro zone central bank until a successor is ready to take over the role, according to a Reuters report.
Mersch on reform of the ECB's Governing Council
In a speechon 'The reform of the Governing Council of the ECB' Yves Mersch of the Central Bank of Luxembourg said particularly important and heartening, in his eyes, after the Council's approval of the enabling clause was the fact that a handful of…
ECB officials give conflicting signals on rate cut
Speaking separately this week two ECB Governing Council members gave conflicting views on what a fall in inflation below the ECB's 2 per cent target would mean for interest rates, according to Bloomberg report.