Central Banks
Zimbabwe "raided private bank accounts
Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country's central bank, admitted on 20 April that he took hard currency from the bank accounts of private businesses and foreign aid groups without authorisation, in efforts to keep the country's…
Sweden cuts rates to record 0.5%
The Riksbank cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to an all-time low of 0.5% on 21 April.
European housing finance more resilient
Housing-finance markets in the euro area are more resilient to shocks their British and American counterparts, new research from the European Central Bank posits.
Albania's Ibrahimi: euro liquidity crucial
It is important that a reasonable flow of euros from banking groups' headquarters to their foreign subsidiaries is maintained, said Fatos Ibrahimi, the first deputy governor of the Bank of Albania.
Lord George, former Bank governor, dies
Eddie George, governor of the Bank of England from 1993 to 2003, died of cancer Saturday, aged 70.
Mexico cuts despite above-target inflation
The Bank of Mexico cited its growing concern about the extent of the slowdown in the national economy as the reasons for a deeper than anticipated cut in interest rates last Friday.
Spain's governor feels the heat
Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, deputy head of Spain's Socialist government has criticised the governor of the central bank, Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez, for being "alarmist" about the state of financing of the country's pension system.
Inflation is not forgotten - ECB's Trichet
Speaking in Tokyo, the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, stressed the need to keep a watchful eye on inflation.
SF Fed's Yellen: rates may have to burst bubbles
Janet Yellen, the president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, has acknowledged that rate hikes may be necessary to counter asset-price bubbles, challenging a central tenet of the Greenspan-era Fed and her own previously-held views.
A new method for evaluating risk aversion
Researchers from the European Central Bank have uncovered a new method of extracting time-varying risk aversion from asset prices.
Euro adoption sparked some structural reforms
The adoption of the euro accelerated the pace of structural reforms in the product market, a research paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) posits.
Sack succeeds Dudley as NY Fed markets chief
Brian Sack, now a vice-president at Macroeconomic Advisers, a firm of economic forecasters, will replace William Dudley as head of the New York Federal Reserve's markets group.
Inflation targeting not enough: BoE's Barker
Kate Barker, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has acknowledged that inflation targeting alone cannot produce economic stability.
Former Kansas Fed chief dies
Roger Guffey, the head of the Kansas City Federal Reserve from 1976 until 1991, has died.
More easing needed in New Zealand: OECD
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand should cut its policy rate by a further percentage point to 2% in order to stimulate the domestic economy, said the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Thursday. The views contrast with those…
Risk management to include parameter uncertainty
Risk-management systems should account for parameter uncertainty, a new paper from the Bank for International Settlements posits.
Bosnia eases reserve requirements
The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday moved to relax its monetary stance in a bid to encourage banks to lend more.
G20 working group: development banks must lend now
Multilateral development banks and other international financial institutions should step up their counter-cyclical efforts to offset capital flight from emerging markets, says a report from a working group prepared for the G20 London summit.
De Grauwe labels Maastricht rules political tools
The Maastricht criteria for euro adoption are political instruments, not economically-vital measures, a respected economist has said.
Tokyo seeks meeting with Shirakawa on economy woe
A senior Japanese politician has called for a meeting with Masaaki Shirakawa, the governor of Bank of Japan, apparently to ask the central bank to do more to abate the economic downturn.
Fed planning communication enhancements: reports
The Federal Reserve looks set to bow to political pressure and disclose more details of its various attempts to tackle the crisis, which have led to the central bank's balance sheet more than doubling in size.
US working on stress-test disclosure: report
Washington is working on proposals to disclose the results of its stress tests on the 19 biggest American banks, say reports.
Bernanke sees shoots of recovery
There are tentative signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing, said Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
SA's Mminele on Southern Africa's goals
The Southern African Development Community's goal is to achieve a single currency and a regional central bank by 2018, said Daniel Mminele, an executive general manager of the South African Reserve Bank.