Central Banking staff
Follow Central Banking
Articles by Central Banking staff
Thai bond plan seen as 'ambitious'
THAILAND - Thailand's plan to issue the equivalent of $18.5bn (£12.6bn) in baht bonds to pay for the central bank's massive losses from the 1997 crash are "very ambitious" and must be handled with care, said economists on Sunday.
Geneva meet to debate Islamic mortgages
UK - A Bank of England working party, which includes representatives of commercial banks and the Treasury, is investigating the wider introduction of Shari'ah compliant house mortgages in the UK, according to the UK's Observer newspaper.
Argentine central bank chief steps down from post
ARGENTINA - Mario Blejer, Argentina's central bank chief, resigned on Friday, raising fears that the country could be poised for a return to hyperinflation.
Is it too early to call an end to deflation?
ARTICLE - Prices have stopped falling and the balance of Bank of Japan banknotes circulating in the market is on a sharp rise. So is it too early to worry about the possibility of inflation asks the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper on Monday.
Political pointers
LETTER - Letter published in the London Financial Times on 24 June from Maurice Fitzpatrick.
A group too big for intense monetary policy debate
LETTER - Letter published in the London Financial Times on 21 June from Michael Davenport.
When will MPC act?
LETTER - Letter published in the London Financial Times on 21 June from Stephen Walkley.
Speech by Robert Parry, San Francisco Fed, 17 Jun
SPEECH - Parry said in a speech titled 'After the Recession: A Monetary Policymaker Looks Ahead' that "we're now in the midst of a modest expansion," after a shallow recession which probably ended in December or January.
Federal Reserve Board Press Release
PRESS RELEASE - Joint Press Release by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 20 June.
Speech by David Dodge of Bank of Canada, 11 Jun
SPEECH - In a speech titled 'Trust, Transparency, and Financial Markets' Dodge told an audience in Nova Scotia that the Canadian economy's strong performance thus far in 2002 has exceeded the Bank's own forecasts.
Deal agreed on Thai bonds
THAILAND - The Thai central bank and government on Friday unveiled a 780 billion baht ($18 billion) bond issue to share the burden of financial sector bailout after the crisis of five years ago. The government will pay the interest on the loan, but the…
Australian reserves on the up
AUSTRALIA - The Reserve Bank took advantage of the local dollar's strength against the greenback last month to sell a net $170 million in local currency on the spot market and add to its foreign exchange reserves.
Uruguay floats the peso
URUGUAY- The currency band system for the peso was brought to an abrupt end amid fears of contagion from the crisis in Argentina and market woes in Brazil. The central bank said there would be only limited intervention to prop up the currency.
Cabinet reduces number on board at CB of China
TAIWAN - The board of directors, which is responsible responsible for monetary policy at the Central Bank of China, is to be reduced to seven from the current 15 people according to a draft bill passed by the cabinet on Thursday.
CB of China to circulate new NT $2,000 bill
TAIWAN - The Central Bank of China will launch a new purple coloured NT$2,000 bill on July 1 to complete the planned release of five different face value bills, including NT$100, NT$200, NT$500 and NT$1,000 denominations.
Canada- outspoken board member not re-appointed
CANADA - Raymond Garneau, a former Quebec Liberal finance minister, has not been reappointed to the the board of the Bank of Canada after he publicly called for Prime Minister Jean Chretien to resign.
ECB sounds the alarm
ECB - The prospect of fudging the EU stability pact, which stipulates a 3% budget deficit ceiling for national governments, drew criticism from ECB officials on Thursday.
Bank of Canada's promotional video
VIDEO - the Bank of Canada had released an online video detailing how the bank maintains the value of the Canadian dollar.
Austria's Financial Stability Review
REPORT - The latest edition of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank's financial stability review is now out.
Does a floating currency buy flexibility?
RESEARCH - ECB WORKING PAPER by Marcel Fratzscher, June 2002"The Euro bloc, the Dollar bloc and the Yen bloc: how much monetary policy independence can exchange rate flexibility buy in an interdependent world?"(ECB Working Paper No. 154), (pdf 416 kB).
Speech by Susan Schmidt Bies of the Fed, 20 Jun
SPEECH - Speech by Fed governor, Susan Bies to the World Bank's 2002 finance forum meeting in Chantilly, Virginia. Bies examines whether developing countries can learn from the US experience in banking regulation.
SA Reserve Bank to learn about inflation targeting
SOUTH AFRICA - Experts from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) are to learn more about inflation targeting from their Canadian counterparts, in terms of an agreement signed in Pretoria on Wednesday.
Issing - Stability pact talk extremely detrimental
GERMANY - The debate on modifying the EU's stability pact is "extremely detrimental," said European Central Bank chief economist Otmar Issing in an interview with German weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche.
Effort made to bring Poland closer to eurozone
POLAND - The Finance Ministry and the Central Bank (NBP) have set up a joint group on the strategy of bringing the Polish economy closer to the Eurozone, which will discuss issues related to the zloty exchange rate strategy in the period of entering the…