Monetary Policy
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Speech by Robert Parry, San Francisco Fed, 6 Jun
SPEECH - In the speech titled 'After the Recession: A Monetary Policymaker Looks Ahead' Parry said that once the expansion takes hold interest rates will have to move up to prevent a build up of inflationary pressures but that for now the approach can be…
Speech by K Persson of Sveriges Riksbank, 11 Jun
SPEECH - Persson said in a speech titled 'The economic situation in a monetary policy perspective' that Sweden's participation in the euro would have various advantages for the economy but acknowledged the disadvantage of a loss of self determination in…
RBA Bulletin, June 2002
REPORT - The Reserve Bank of Australia on Thursday published the June 2002 issue of its Bulletin.
A flawed independence
ARTICLE - Treasury interference could stop the Bank of England mitigating the effects of inflationary shocks, says Christopher Huhne in an article in Thursday's London edition of the Financial Times.
European Central Bank Working Paper
RESEARCH - G-7 Inflation forecasts by Fabio Canova, June 2002.
US Fed scare proves to be a false alarm
US - Staff at the Washington headquarters of the US Federal Reserve have been allowed back into their offices after an earlier bomb scare proved to be a false alarm.
Brazil maintains steady interest rates
BRAZIL - Brazil's central bank yesterday maintained its prime interest rate at 18.5 per cent for the third consecutive month after recent market turmoil began fuelling inflation fears.
ECB Press Release
PRESS RELEASE - Schedules for the meetings of the Governing Council and the General Council of the ECB and the related press conferences in 2003, 20 June.
Vision not aggression says Polish c bank chief
POLAND - "There is no conflict between the Polish central bank and the government when it comes to real economic issues. What we see is the government's aggression against an independent state institution, something unheard of in the civilized world. In…
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…
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.
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.
Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee Minutes
MINUTES - Minutes from the Bank of England's MPC meeting 5 and 6 June, released 19 June. The committee acknowledged the continuing economic recovery in the United States and the euro area's modest 0.2% growth in the first quarter.
Extreme Contagion in Equity Markets
RESEARCH - IMF Working Paper by Jorge Chan-Lau, Donald Mathieson and James Yao of the International Capital Markets Department, 18 June. Their results suggest that contagion patterns differ significantly within regions with Latin America showing an…
Federal Reserve Bulletin, June 2002
REPORT - Profits and Balance Sheet Developments at U.S. Commercial Banks in 2001 William F. Bassett and Mark Carlson, released 18 June.
Speech by J Alfred Broaddus, Richmond Fed, 5 Jun
SPEECH - In a speech titled 'An Update on the Economy and Monetary Policy' Broaddus said that the outlook for the next several quarters was 'murky' but that the recovery seemed firmly in place.
Speech by U Backstrom of Sveriges Riksbank, 7 Jun
SPEECH - Backstrom said in a speech titled 'The importance of a well-functioning stock market' that in order to reduce the risk of financial market imbalances, it is important that we have a well thought-out legislative, regulatory and supervisory…
Speech by Stephen Nickell, Bank of England, 19 Jun
SPEECH - In the paper titled 'Monetary Policy Issues: Past, Present, Future' Nickell answered questions such as Has the MPC demonstrated a bias towards deflation?, and What are the challenges for the immediate future?