Central Banks
Venezuelan inflation still running at over 700%, expert says
Venezuela’s central bank appears to be unable to make any impact on soaring inflation levels and has not reported an inflation number this year, says Steve Hanke
Leverage is key factor in threat posed by bubbles, study finds
A San Francisco Fed study of 17 bubbles over the past 140 years provides empirical support for the idea that leveraged bubbles have most potential for damage
Zeti stresses need for good data in promoting financial inclusion
Bank Negara Malaysia governor says better data helps put pressure on countries to improve financial inclusion; offers guidance on how to improve performance
Falling real rates put US ‘at risk of financial instability’, says Kocherlakota
Minneapolis Fed president warns that long-run real interest rates are falling and risk causing financial instability and ineffectual monetary policy
RBNZ tweaks macro-prudential plans after banks push back
Banks will be subject to more lenient ‘speed limits’ and will have more time to adapt to new macro-prudential rules, after the industry complains
Riksbank’s af Jochnick defends monetary policy stance
Interest rates cannot at present respond to growing risks in the housing market, Riksbank first deputy says, but they are helping to drive rising inflation and economic recovery in Sweden
Stress indexes have widely varying signal benefits, Fed paper says
Cleveland’s index gives the best picture of current financial stress conditions, but few indexes have value in predicting future problems, Cleveland Fed study says
Fed data gives model of banks’ settlement service choices, paper argues
Data from the Fed’s Fedwire payment service shows that banks select payment services based on average rather than marginal cost, study finds
Central bank restricts lending at half of Ireland’s credit unions
Ireland’s central bank has restricted lending at the country’s credit unions and appointed external auditors to discover the true state of lending in the industry
RBI licenses prospective mobile phone bankers
India’s central bank grants provisional licences to 11 companies to run mobile phone-based banking for poorer Indians
Tenge plunges as Kazakhstan moves to free float
Pressure on currency forces central bank to abandon peg, although the government casts it as the next step in the shift towards inflation targeting
CPMI-Iosco unveil plans for unique transaction identifiers
Consultation lays out proposals for codes to identify over the counter derivatives transactions, as part of efforts to improve reporting to trade repositories
Trawl through BoJ archives reveals emergence of current policy-making
Study of failures and successes of BoJ policy-making in the 1980s reveals the emergence of current thinking about how best to conduct monetary policy
FOMC inching towards rate hike, minutes hint
Minutes of July meeting show some members are still concerned that labour market and inflation data are not strong enough for a hike, but several think the economy is nearly ready
IMF extends current SDR basket by nine months
Fund stresses the extension does not ‘prejudge’ its decision on including the renminbi in the basket; final decision still expected this year
BoJ’s Nakaso: ‘No serious problems’ with JGB liquidity
New data shows a drop in market depth, but QE is not threatened, says deputy governor
Nigeria’s efforts to support currency could unravel
Nigeria’s central bank governor is imposing strict capital controls to cope with the country’s slumping oil revenues but analysts predict naira devaluation is only a matter of time
EC urged to exempt insurers from central clearing
The need for cash collateral could encourage pro-cyclical investing, industry representatives say
FOMC forecasts perform better in short- than long-term, Fed paper finds
Forecasts prepared ahead of FOMC meetings from 1997-2008 considerably outperform benchmarks at short horizons, but the results are much more mixed in the longer term
IMF paper: capital inflows work differently on credit for households and firms
The composition of capital inflows affects whether and how they cause credit growth, IMF working paper says
Iceland hikes again amid inflation shock
Large wage increases force central bank to reassess its inflation forecast and hike rates for a second meeting in a row, with more likely to follow
Norway’s oil fund suffers loss in second quarter
Losses of about $9 billion were largely driven by the fixed-income portfolio, although equities delivered a weak performance; NBIM takes a more activist stance
Regulators face trade-off over publishing stress test results
Regulators publishing stress test results may inhibit frankness by bankers, a Philadelphia Fed working paper argues, but confidentiality brings its own risks
Zeti defends China's ‘managed convertibility' of RMB
Bank Negara Malaysia's governor says the international monetary system relies on ‘too few' reserve currencies; calls China's stock market fluctuations and cooling economy ‘short-term challenges'