Debt Management
Comment: The 'yield conundrum' revisited
Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, made it clear in a speech earlier this week that he is no closer than his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, to making sense of the 'yield conundrum'.
Term structure transmission of monetary policy
According to this December 2005 Kansas City Fed Working Paper, the sensitivity of bond rates to macro variables appears to vary both over time and over forecast horizons.
Bernanke says derivatives make economy resilient
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a response made public on Wednesday 15 March to a senator's question that derivatives were being well-managed and had bolstered the US economy's resilience to shocks in recent years.
NY Fed welcomes derivatives commitments
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Monday 13 March it welcomes the new commitments by 14 major market participants to continue their progress toward improving the infrastructure that supports the credit derivatives markets.
China considering expansion of HK yuan business
The Chinese government may allow Hong Kong companies to issue yuan-denominated bonds and settle trade transactions using the yuan, in order to expand yuan business in the city, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBoC) said, according…
IMF upholds sanctions against Zimbabwe
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund met Wednesday 8 March to review Zimbabwe's overdue financial obligations to the Fund and consider the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.
IMF paper on banks during the Argentine crisis
According to the IMF Working Paper "Banks during the Argentine crisis: Were they all hurt equally? Did they all behave equally?" published February 2006, the simple answer to both questions in the title is: No.
Japan's debt straitjacket is out of style
Amid the euphoria over the end of deflation and a likely change in the Bank of Japan's policy, this recent article says it's easy to forget that Japan remains addicted to borrowed money.
Comment: Zimbabwe's mystery repayment
Two weeks ago the Zimbabwean government managed to avoid expulsion from the IMF by paying off a large chunk of its debt to the Fund. However, the source of the forex-depleted government's finances remains a mystery.
Solomon Islands to repay central bank debt
The Solomon Islands government has signed a deal that will restructure and repay a part of its $US30 million debt with the country's central bank.
Comment: Indonesia and the IMF
The Indonesian finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, has indicated that the country is considering the early repayment of its outstanding debt to the IMF. The prospect of early repayment raises some interesting questions and policymakers are likely to…
Developing corporate bond markets in Asia
Thirty participants including high-level officials from central banks in Asia and the Pacific, the European Central Bank and the BIS took part in the BIS/PBC seminar held in Kunming, China on 17-18 November 2005.
Germany to issue inflation-linked bonds
The German government plans to issue inflation-linked bonds this year, but is hoping for an uptick in inflation expectations to time the sale Gerhard Schleif, the head of the nation's debt agency, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview yesterday.
UK urged to provide more long-term gilts
The UK government should issue more long-term gilts and extend its use of index-linked gilts, investors told the government in an annual consultation meeting on Wednesday 1 February.
Bond market bubble?
It is time to push beyond the "global savings glut" argument and the closely related "excess global liquidity" argument to explain the extraordinarily low level of both real and nominal long-term interest rates, according to this article published on…
Comment: Nigeria's CB wins praise
In the statement accompanying its BB minus long-term credit rating for Nigeria, the rating agency Fitch this week applauded policymakers' "strong commitment to economic reform", including "measures to rationalise the banking system" implemented by the…
Iraq seeking $40bn GCC debt relief
Iraq's central bank chief has said he hopes the Gulf GCC countries will follow the example of other states and give Iraq 'generous treatment' over debt cancellation.
Fed says foreign central banks boost debt holdings
Federal Reserve data released on Thursday 19 January showed foreign central banks were net buyers of US debt in the latest week, with purchases of agency securities slightly exceeding a decline in Treasury holdings.
IMF's Rato to visit Brazil on January 10-11
Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, will visit Brazil on January 10-11, 2006, at the invitation of the President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to mark the nation's early repayment of its outstanding obligations to the Fund.
ECB addendum to bond markets report
The European Central Bank published an addendum to the November 2004 report entitled "Bond markets and long-term interest rates in non-euro area Member States of the European Union and in accession countries" (third edition) on Monday 2 January.
IMF Paper: Debt overhang or debt irrelevance?
The IMF Working Paper 'Debt overhang or debt irrelevance? Revisiting the debt growth link' published December 2005 asks whether Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) suffer from a debt overhang. Is debt relief going to improve their growth rates, it…
Comment: Latin America spurns the Fund
Last week Brazil and Argentina surprised the international community by announcing that they both intend paying off all of their outstanding debt to the IMF before the end of the year.
Argentina plans full IMF debt repayment
Argentina has said it will pay back its entire $9.8 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund, ending 22-year-old links with the lender.
Comment: Brazil's surprise IMF settlement
Earlier this week Brazil announced that it plans to pay off its entire $15.5 billion in debt to the IMF by the end of the month. In doing so, the country will meet its outstanding IMF obligations two years ahead of schedule.