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World Bank president announces intention to retire
World Bank President Jim Wolfensohn sent a message to Yahya Alyahya, Dean of the Board of Executive Directors, on Monday 3 January. In the message he said he does not wish to be considered for a third term and intends to retire at the end of May 2005…
Philadelphia Fed names Executive Vice President
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has also promoted Blake Prichard, its senior vice president in charge of retail payments, to the position of executive vice president.
Philadelphia Fed names Assistant Vice President
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has announced the promotion of Michael Doyle to assistant vice president in the Bank's Information Technology Services Department.
Interview with CBBH's Peter Nicholl
After almost seven years, the mandate of the Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina Peter Nicholl ended on 31 December 2004. In this interview Nicholl discusses the role of the CBBH and its development in the future, and offers advice to…
Rushed Fed minutes could use a good rewrite man
The Federal Reserve's decision to publish the minutes of its FOMC meetings with a three-week instead of a six-week lag seems to have sacrificed clarity for speed, according to this article. The thought processes reflected in the minutes come across as…
Fed's Kohn on crisis management
In a speech on 'Crisis management: The known, the unknown, and the unknowable' given on 6 January, Donald Kohn of the Federal Reserve said although some critics have argued that the FOMC's policy adjustments in response to financial instability encourage…
The transition to inflation targeting in Romania
In the near future, Romania will introduce inflation targeting and fully liberalize its capital account. This recently published IMF Working Paper analyses how these two profound changes will affect the ability of monetary policy to pursue its objective…
IMF on interest-rate liberalization in China
A recently published article by two members of the IMF's China Division looks at the recent decision by the People's Bank of China to raise interest rates for the first time in nine years. The liberalization of rates is a landmark change, it says, and…
ECB announces public consultation on SWIFT
The European Central Bank announced on Wednesday 5 January that it was inviting the market to participate in the SWIFT public consultation on removing technical barriers to market integration.
Statement by IMF's Rato ahead of Jakarta meeting
Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement on Wednesday 5 January after arriving in Jakarta, Indonesia, for a high-level meeting on humanitarian relief for countries affected by the Asia…
BOK pledges to maintain price stability
The Bank of Korea said on Wednesday 5 January that it will focus on making sure the country does not exceed its inflation target this year, while promoting coodination between monetary, fiscal, foreign exchange and regulatory policies.
Belgium's Reynders urges ECB to be more responsive
Speaking at the end of a press conference, Belgian finance minister Didier Reynders called on the European Central Bank to react more quickly to changes in the economic situation.
RBI's Reddy says tsunami will impact on deficit
Speaking on Thursday 6 January, Reserve Bank of India Governor YV Reddy said that while the recent tsunami would only have a limited economic impact, it would put some upward pressure on the fiscal deficit.
IMF calls on Vietnam to ease currency peg
The International Monetary Fund forecast on Wednesday 6 January that Vietnam's economy should grow by 7 percent in 2005, and urged authorities to "move cautiously" to ease the nearly fixed dong-dollar exchange rate.
Audit scolds Bank of Canada
Internal auditors have criticised the Bank of Canada for slack financial practices, according to a report by the Canadian Press.
BOK expected to report losses
South Korea's central bank is expected to have recorded more than 100 billion won (US$96.4 million) in losses last year following interest payments for debts sold to control liquidity ballooned, officials at the Bank of Korea said Tuesday.
China's monetary policy may not tighten-PBOC
China's recent pledge to conduct a prudent monetary policy does not necessarily mean the bank will continue its credit tightening measures, the China Securities Journal reported, citing a People's Bank of China official.
Greenspan, Clinton fuelled '90s boom
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan can take only partial credit for the longest economic expansion on record in the 1990s, Morgan Stanley's chief economist Stephen Roach wrote in Foreign Policy, a magazine published by the Carnegie Endowment for…
Bank of Spain sees GDP continuing trend
The Bank of Spain said in its monthly economic bulletin that the GDP growth trend seen in the third quarter is expected to continue into the fourth quarter.
Deutsche Bundesbank Monthly Report, November 2004
The Deutsche Bundesbank's November 2004 Monthly Report said the economic upswing ran into difficulties during the third quarter of 2004 after the recovery process had gained considerable momentum in the two preceding quarters.
Iwata on Japan's economy under demographic changes
In a speech on 'Japan's economy under demographic changes' given on 7 December, Kazumasa Iwata of the Bank of Japan said for a central bank that is striving to overcome deflation, the ageing issue of society presents a challenging task, because it…
Bank of England MPC Minutes, 8&9 December
The minutes from the 8 & 9 December meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England showed that members voted unanimously to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged, with some policy makers raising the possibility of a rate cut.
Fed Reserve Bank of St Louis Review, Jan/Feb 2005
The latest edition of the St Louis Fed's Review for January-February 2005 includes a re-publication of William Poole's speech "FOMC Transparency". Also included is an article on "The diffusion of electronic business in the United States" which provides a…
FOMC Minutes, 14 December
Minutes from the Federal Reserve's 14 December FOMC meeting released on 4 January said that with the economic expansion more firmly entrenched, cost and price pressures were likely to become a clearer, intermediate-term risk to sustained good economic…