Monetary Policy
Portugal cbank chief sees euro firming in 2001
PORTUGAL - Bank of Portugal governor Vitor Constancio on Apr 18 predicted the euro would recover from its current weakness by the end of 2001.
Swiss mon policy during 1970s-lessons for Japan
CENTRAL BANK RESEARCH - Peter Kugler from Basel University and Georg Rich from the Swiss National Bank have published a paper "Monetary Policy Under Low Interest Rates: The Experience of Switzerland in the late 1970s". Using evidence from Switzerland's…
Financial innovation and monetary transmission
CENTRAL BANK RESEARCH - On April 5-6, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York organized the conference "Financial Innovation and Monetary Transmission." The twelve papers presented at the conference cover many topics including the "announcement effect",…
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,…
BoJ Hayami unsure about duration of deflation
JAPAN - Bank of Japan Governor Masaru Hayami said on Apr 17, 2001 he could not say how long it would take for the core nationwide consumer price index to rise to near zero percent, which the central bank has set as a condition for changing its current…
Canada cuts interest rates to 5% to boost demand
CANADA - The Bank of Canada on Apr 17 cut its key lending rate to 5.0 percent from 5.25 percent and the overnight rate to 4.75 percent from 5.0 percent to support the economy in the face of slowing domestic demand.
IMF forecasts 3% growth in Czech Republic
CZECH REPUBLIC - The International Monetary Fund said on Apr 17 it expected the Czech economy to grow by around three percent 2001 after 3.1 percent in 2000.
Mongolia's inflation rises due to foot-and-mouth
MONGOLIA - Mongolia said on Apr 17, 2001 its annual inflation rose to 11.6 percent in March, up from 9.4 percent in February, as meat prices leapt under the impact of foot-and-mouth disease and a disastrous winter.
BOJ leaves monetary policy unchanged
JAPAN - The Bank of Japan's policy board voted unanimously to keep its current policy unchanged at its first two-day policy board meeting that ended Apr 13, 2001.
Trichet says ECB immune to rate cut pressures
FRANCE - The European Central Bank will not and should not be influenced by outside pressures for a cut in interest rates, Bank of France Governor Jean-Claude Trichet said on Apr 12, 2001.
US economy appears to be stabilizing-Fed's Hoenig
UNITED STATES - The U.S. economy is showing signs of stabilizing and will likely pick up speed in the second half of 2001, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig said on Apr 12.
Egypt cbank cuts rates for first time in 28 months
EGYPT - Egypt's Central Bank on Apr 12 cut its discount rate to 11.5 percent from 12 percent in a move welcomed by market operators, but which some analysts feared would do too little to boost the sluggish economy.
Nigerian president, bankers meet on currency drop
NIGERIA - The naira currency resumed trading in Nigeria on Apr 12 following a two-day closure of the local forex market.
Zdenek calls for state finance reform-paper
CZECH REPUBLIC - Czech public finance deficits could threaten the country's macroeconomic stability in two or three years if reforms are not taken, daily Hospodarske Noviny quoted the central bank Governor Zdenek Tuma as saying on Apr 13.
BOI pleads banks to hold back from euro rush
ITALY - The Bank of Italy, fearing overcrowding at banking counters in the first days of the change over from the lira to the euro in January 2002, has urged Italian banks to persuade their clients there is no hurry.
Iranian inflation drops to 10-year low in 2000/01
IRAN - Iran's inflation dropped to 12.8 percent during the Iranian financial year ending on Mar 20, 2001 its lowest level for 10 years, a newspaper reported on Apr 14 citing central bank figures.
Turkey has no target for floated lira-Dervis
TURKEY - Turkish Economy Minister Kemal Dervis on Apr 14 said there is no target value for the country's lira currency, which has fallen over 40 percent against the dollar since its float in late February 2001.
International Finance
BOOK - A new two-volume book on "International Finance" edited by Robert Aliber, Professor of International Economics at the University of Chicago has just been published.It collects together a number of significant papers by leading scholars in the…
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…
Managing public expenditure-transition economies
BOOK - The OECD has published a book "Managing Public Expenditure: A Reference Book for Transition Countries". It presents a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of all aspects of public expenditure management from the preparation of the budget to the…
ECB keep rates at 4.75%, despite pressure
EUROPE - The European Central Bank on Apr 11 maintained interest rates at 4.75% because of inflationary pressures in the eurozone, but the central bank acknowledged that risks on the downside remained.
Finance minister McCreevy defends Irish budget
IRELAND - Ireland's Finance Minister, Charlie McCreevy, whose budget was singled out for a reprimand by the European Commission, said in front of euro MPs that he was "amused" by the criticism, especially as other member states had debt to GDP ratios…
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.
World Bank releases gloomy econ outlook for Japan
JAPAN - Japan's economy has reverted to its anaemic state and is now at higher risk of falling into recession in earnest, the World Bank said in a report on the global economy released Apr 10.