News
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.
Fiji sacks Narube and devalues dollar
The Reserve Bank of Fiji devalued the Fiji dollar by 20% on Wednesday hours after Savenaca Narube, the governor, was removed from the central bank by government officials.
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.
ECB dissenter Orphanides heralds deflation threat
Athanasios Orphanides, the governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus and a staunch advocate of a looser monetary-policy stance, has warned of the increasing threat of the eurozone deflation.
UAE sees assets depreciate by a third
The value of the assets held by Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates fell by almost a third last year, the central bank revealed on Tuesday.
Poland seeks $20.5 billion IMF credit line
Poland on Tuesday became the second country to ask for access to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) new credit lines, requesting $20.5 billion to buttress the country against the crisis.
Tarp to get new head, Goldman to repay funds
Reports emerged on Tuesday that the head of Fannie Mae would replace Bush-administration appointee Neel Kashkari as the overseer of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp). The news came after Goldman Sachs announced on Monday a $5 billion public…
Crisis highlights shortfalls in UK payments: BoE
The financial crisis has uncovered uncertainties and knowledge gaps among market participants in the United Kingdom's payment and settlement infrastructure, the Bank of England said on Tuesday.
Bank of England holds on quantitative easing
The Bank of England has opted to wait and see what impact its quantitative easing programme is having before pledging a further boost to the money supply.
FOMC views differ on scale of asset purchases
Senior Federal Reserve officials disagree on the amount of Treasuries and mortgage-agency debt the central bank should buy, minutes of the last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) show.
Crisis undermines our models: new SNB official
Jean-Pierre Danthine, an academic who is set to join the Swiss National Bank's (SNB) board in 2010, has said that the crisis demands a fundamental rethink of the economic models used by central bankers.
Czechs name new communications head
Marek Petrus, now head of research at the Prague office of Egon Zehnder, a consultancy, is to take over from Pavlina Bolfova as the Czech National Bank's communications head at the start of next month.
Nigeria cuts for first time in seven months
The Central Bank of Nigeria sliced 175 basis points off its key interest rate on Thursday with the scarcity of credit outweighing concerns over inflation.
Iceland cuts by 150 basis points
The Central Bank of Iceland cut its policy rate by one and half basis points to 15.5% on Wednesday, the second cut in less than a month.
Bernanke, Dudley justify Talf
Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and William Dudley, the president of the New York Fed, moved to temper fears among lawmakers that the central bank's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (Talf) puts taxpayers' money at risk.
Hildebrand named new Swiss National Bank head
Philipp Hildebrand, the vice-chairman of the board of governors at the Swiss National Bank, will take over from Jean-Pierre Roth as chairman of the board at the start of next year.
Fisher hints at new anti-inflation tools for Fed
Richard Fisher, the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, gave the clearest signal yet that the central bank will soon be handed new tools to counter the inflationary impact of its crisis-fighting measures.
UK opposition moots change to BoE price target
Britain's main opposition party has indicated that it will review the Bank of England's inflation target if it comes to power.
IMF: toxic-debt bill to hit $4 trillion - report
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is allegedly set to release new forecasts showing the cost of writedowns could reach $4 trillion, a leading British newspaper has reported.
Renminbi should be added to SDR basket: Mundell
Robert Mundell, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, has called for the International Monetary Fund to add the renminbi to the list of currencies represented in its special-drawing-rights (SDRs) basket.
Bulgarian public to get first-ever peek inside CB
The Bulgarian National Bank is set open its doors to the public for the first time in its 130-year history later this month.
Sri Lanka names four new deputies
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka will promote four assistant governors to the rank of deputy in the coming months.