News
ECB Press Release
PRESS RELEASE - European Central Bank launches international architectural competition, 26 November.
ECB to study lending policies with survey
The European Central Bank will begin conducting a quarterly survey next year of credit policies practised by banks operating in the 12-nation euro zone. The move comes just days after the Irish central bank warned lenders to stick within guidelines.
Poland sees risk of delaying EMU entry
A member of the Monetary Policy Council (RPP) of the central bank, Boguslaw Grabowski, sees a risk of delay in Poland's accession to the euro zone because of possible problems in reducing the budget deficit.
Reserve Bank of Australia Press Release
PRESS RELEASE - The Reserve Bank today announced the appointment of Dr Tony Richards as Head of Economic Research. This follows the decision of Dr David Gruen, the previous Head, to accept a secondment to the Commonwealth Treasury, 26 November.
Economy satisfactory - Ghana central bank chief
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Paul Acquah said that the economy has performed well over the last year but cautioned that the government needs to sustain its macroeconomic policies with emphasis on consolidating efforts on fiscal and monetary…
Moskow expects US to hit growth potential in 2003
Michael Moskow has followed up Robert McTeer's comments we reported yesterday, saying the central bank's accommodative monetary policy will help US economic growth recover to full speed by next year. He is just the latest in a line of Federal Reserve…
Brazil president to name new central bank head
President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is likely to unveil his cabinet and new central bank chief within the next two weeks before a meeting of his left-wing Workers' Party (PT), one of his top advisers said Monday. We recently reported that Arminio…
George says public spending will prop up growth
Speaking on Tuesday the Bank of England's governor, Sir Edward George said public spending will underpin UK economic growth once consumer demand starts to wane, but any "substantial and generalised" public sector pay rises will push up inflation. He gave…
Chicago Fed Press Release
PRESS RELEASE - Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Purchases 17-acre Site Near Eastern Market for New Detroit Branch Office, 21 November.
G20 countries disagree on debt defaults
Last weekends meeting of Group of 20 central bank governors and finance ministers from rich and developing nations failed to make much progress as differing views on how best to resolve emerging market debt defaults divided delegates.
Korea hosts EMEAP
The Bank of Korea began its 24th Executives' Meeting of East Asia and Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP) deputies on 25 November on the southern resort island of Cheju. It is expected that around 35 central bank deputy-governors and executives from EMEAP…
Bimal Jalan downplays fears of financial crisis
Saturday saw the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Dr Bimal Jalan play down any threat of a domestic financial crisis. He reassured people that macro-economic indicators of the Indian economy were strong with low inflation, reasonably good growth…
'Goose the US economy' says McTeer
The latest Federal Reserve official to publicly voice his support for the FOMC's recent interest rate reduction is Bob McTeer, president of the Dallas Fed. McTeer showed himself to be in favour of a rate cut back in September, voting against the FOMC…
New e-cash system in France
Regulators following the development of e-commerce will be interested to learn that the revolutionary electronic cash system for small transactions that has been tried out in several French provinces since 1999 went live in Paris in November.
Fed's Kohn on US trade gap
Federal Reserve Governor Donald Kohn said on Friday it was "hard to imagine" the imbalance in the U.S. current account could continue indefinitely and that a rough correction of the situation was a distinct risk.
BIS Press Release
PRESS RELEASE - Hague Arbitral Tribunal decision regarding the repurchase of privately held shares of the Bank for International Settlements, 25 November 2002.
BIS forced to pay $390m shareholder compensation
Following a decision by the Arbitration Tribunal in the Hague, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) will have to pay another $390m to compensate private shareholders whom the bank banned last year from holding shares.
MasterCard takes a swipe at RBA
The long running dispute between the credit card companies and Australia's reserve bank continued this week as legal action got under way. The action concerns alleged misconceptions by the Reserve Bank of its obligations under the Payments Systems …
Minutes of Japan's Monetary Policy Meeting
MINUTES - Minutes of the Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Meeting on 10 and 11 October 2002, released 22 November. The nine member Policy Board decided unanimously to leave monetary policy unchanged at the meeting, resisting political pressure to try to…
Fed governor Bernanke repeats confidence on prices
Much recent press comment has focussed on whether the US economy could be set for a period of deflation. In a speech made Thursday Ben Bernanke said he was confident that the Federal Reserve still had the fire power left, even if interest rates fell…
London not losing out over euro says B of E
In its six monthly 'Practical Issues Arising from the Euro' the Bank of England said on Friday that the City of London had retained its share of foreign exchange trading and in various other dealing areas since the introduction of the euro as a tradeable…
Greens win reprieve on Irish notes landfill site
The problem of what to do with the old legacy currencies replaced by the euro reared its head in Ireland as the central bank bowed to pressure and agreed to look again at what it was doing with the old Irish punts and not just dump them in landfill sites.
Italy poised to put strict curb on public spending
After much recent talk on the stability and growth pact Italy looks set to restrict spending in an effort to avoid sanctions which other euro zone countries have recently incurred for not restricting their budget deficits to within 3 percent of GDP. The…
Norway c bank chief sees closer U.S.-Norway ties
In a speech made this week Svein Gjedrem said Nordic countries and the US have long historic ties and that these ties would grow closer, helped by Norway's investments of surplus oil cash abroad.