Opinion
US households more buoyant than generally believed
ARTICLE - The financial position of US households ranks high on the list of concerns about the economic and financial outlook. The fear is that a negative personal saving rate and record debt-to-income levels point to a potential sharp retrenchment in…
Gerashchenko gloomy on Russian banks
Interviewed in The Banker magazine (May 2001 edition) Viktor Gerashchenko, head of Russia's central bank painted a gloomy picture of the state of Russia's banking system.
Rate to be cut before inflation hits target
REPORT - A poll showed that the biggest group of economists still believes the ECB will cut its benchmark rate from 4.75 percent next month even though inflation is heading up, not down.
Making EMU Work: Some Lessons from the 1990s
ARTICLE - Jorg Bibow lectures at the University of Hamburg on central banking and European integration. This working paper investigates the lessons learned from Europe's convergence process of the 1990s.
Government and Innovation Policy in South Africa
ARTICLE - In this article Sunil Mani of the United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies analyses the South African Experience of Government and Innovation Policy since 1994.
Commission paper highlights euro challenges
A new publication by the European Commission surveys the first two years of the euro's existence and highlights some of the challenges ahead.
Cross-sector financial disclosure (update)
An international regulatory working group has released a set of guidelines to prompt all financial institutions to reveal more information about the risks they are running.
Optimal horizons for inflation targeting
ARTICLE - This paper investigates the problem of selecting an optimal horizon for inflation targeting in the United Kingdom. It was written by Nicoletta Batini and Edward Nelson of the Monetary Policy Committee Unit, Bank of England.
Overbidding problem in the ECB fixed rate auctions
ARTICLE - Dieter Nautz from Goethe University and Jorg Oechssler from Bonn University have written a paper "The repo auctions of the European Central Bank and the vanishing quota puzzle". The article examines the overbidding problem faced by the ECB in…
Central banks could own big chunk of US Tsys-UBSW
RESEARCH - Global central banks could own the entire supply of marketable U.S. debt by the end of 2006 as growing foreign exchange reserves force them to buy more ultra-safe U.S. government debt, according to a survey of central banks conducted by UBS…
Costs of forex intervention - evidence from Sweden
ARTICLE - Boo Sjoo and Richard Sweeney have published an article "The foreign-exchange costs of central bank intervention: evidence from Sweden" in the latest issue of Journal of International Money and Finance. The study supports the view that the…
What is wrong with Taylor Rules?
ARTICLE - Lars Svensson, professor of economics at Stockholm University, has published an article "What is Wrong with Taylor Rules? Using Judgment in Monetary Policy through Targeting Rules". In the paper, Svensson says that Taylor Rules are an…
Permanent accommodation for the HKMA
ARTICLE - Joseph Yam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, in his weekly column on the HKMA website, says that the strong reaction from some politicians about the planned purchase, through the Exchange Fund, of a permanent office for the…
Inflation targeting and the liquidity trap
ARTICLE - Bennett McCallum from the National Bureau of Economic Research has published an article on "Inflation Targeting and the Liquidity Trap". The paper says that 'liquidity trap' issues do not have an important bearing on the desirability of…
RBI may cut India bank rate Q2 of 01/02-JP Morgan
INDIA - India's central bank, which on Apr 19 released a monetary policy statement without any changes in rates, is expected to lower its benchmark bank rate later this year, JP Morgan Securities India said in a research report.
CLS Bank may reduce foreign exchange risk
ARTICLE - The Economist magazine reports in its Apr 14 edition on the introduction of a new financial institution later in 2001 which is designed to reduce the risk of a crisis in foreign exchange payments.
Best practice in debt management-IMF guidelines
ARTICLE - The IMF and World Bank have published a final version of their report "Guidelines for Public Debt Management". The IMF drew up the guidelines to assist governments "build capacity for managing their debt" which would consequently "reduce their…
Britain and EMU - the five economic tests
ARTICLE - GrahamBishop.com's latest publication on "Britain and Euroland" finds that the degree of divergence between Britain and key EU countries has already halved since the UK Treasury's 1997 assessment. So with a UK general election due in June 2001,…
Stock mkt performance of the Belgium central bank
ARTICLE - Lawrence Goldberg from the University of Miami and Rezaul Kabir from University of Tilburg have written an article "The Stock Market Performance of the Central Bank of Belgium". The purpose of this paper is to examine the stock market valuation…
Monetary policy for an open economy-McCallum
ARTICLE - Bennett McCallum and Edward Nelson have written an article "Monetary Policy for an Open Economy: An Alternative Framework with Optimizing Agents and Sticky Prices". The authors use an alternative approach for constructing open economy models by…
Getting to the heart of central bank indecisivenes
ARTICLE - A letter published in the Financial Times on Apr 11 comments on an article published in the FT on Apr 10 "Avoiding interest rate surprises" which gave a personal view by European member of parliament Sir Christopher Huhne.
Overhaul at Bank of Thailand
ARTICLE - In an article published in the Far Eastern Economic Review, ShawnCrispin considers the impact that Chatumongkol Sonakul has had on the Bank of Thailand since his appointment as governor.
Expanded monetary union in West Africa
ARTICLE - In an article published in the IMF's quarterly magazine, IMF economists R.D. Asante and Paul Robert Masson talk with Jacqueline Irving of the IMF's external relations department about the pros and cons of expanded monetary union in West Africa.
ECB should avoid market surprises-Chris Huhne
ARTICLE - In a guest column in the Financial Times on Apr 10, euro MP Chris Huhne says that the European Central Bank needs a clearer reporting process for its decisions on monetary policy.