Central Banks
Best practice in debt management-IMF guidelines
ARTICLE - The IMF and World Bank have published a final version of their report "Guidelines for Public Debt Management". The IMF drew up the guidelines to assist governments "build capacity for managing their debt" which would consequently "reduce their…
HKMA - Fiscal Reserves and the Exchange Fund
ARTICLE - Joseph Yam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, in his weekly column on the HKMA website explains how the exchange fund and the government's fiscal reserves are managed and invested together, while emphasising that they are two…
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…
PBOC appoints Guo Shuqing as head of forex
CHINA - The People's Bank of China, China's central bank, has appointed Guo Shuqing as one of its deputy governors and the head of the foreign exchange regulatory agency.
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.
Philippine monetary board OKs liquidity facility
PHILIPPINES - The Monetary Board, the policy-making body of the Philippine central bank, has approved the establishment of an inter-day liquidity facility to help banks in their financing requirements.
Iran plans to tap capital markets for funds-cbank
IRAN - Iran is talking to foreign banks with a view to raising money on the international capital markets "when the time is right", the central bank governor, Mohsen Nourbaksh, said on Apr 16.
India's cbank tightens banks' bullion trade norms
INDIA - The Reserve Bank of India has tightened bullion trading norms for commercial banks after some of them faced potential losses from their exposure to a cooperative bank that specialises in gold trade.
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.
Thai central bank demands forex exposure details
THAILAND - The Bank of Thailand has issued a circular telling banks to provide details on their foreign debt exposure and repayment obligations when they buy dollars from local commercial banks.
Brazil's new payment system delayed to Jan 2002
BRAZIL - The Brazilian central bank late on Apr 11 said it delayed the implementation of the country's new system for payments for the banking sector to January 2002, to allow for more testing.
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…
New Basel Accord reduces power of bank regulators
CENTRAL BANK RESEARCH - Wimboh Santoso from Bank Indonesia has published a paper "Capital adequacy assessment with respect to market risk". He concludes that the adoption of VaR in the banking industry will reduce the power of regulators to control banks…