International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Azerbaijan central bank raises rates for fourth time this year as currency plummets
Falling oil and gas prices have major impact on Azerbaijan’s economy; IMF calls for major banking sector reforms
BoE’s Shafik to step down early
Deputy governor reveals she is to take up post as director of the London School of Economics in 2017, leaving the central bank more than two years before her term was due to end
Book notes: And the weak suffer what they must?, by Yanis Varoufakis
A book that is likely to elicit strong opinions – but Varoufakis writes persuasively, and may well win over many of his readers, says David Mayes
IMF’s Singh urges central banks to beware of collateral impact of policy
Senior economist says asset purchase programmes have drained quality collateral from the system, damaging the economy’s “financial plumbing”
More than AML fears driving correspondent banks away from Arab economies – report
AMF-IMF-World Bank survey of banks in Arab nations finds a broader de-risking to be behind pull-back of correspondent banking, though trend is uneven
Co-ordinated effort needed to raise growth – Lagarde
IMF chief says all policy levers must be used to halt low growth; G20 also promised reforms to provide “growth impulse”
Emerging evidence can guide design of macro-prudential policies, say BIS, IMF and FSB
International institutions present review of evidence on macro-prudential policies; no consensus but some patterns are emerging
Mozambique replaces governor Gove with IMF official
Ernesto Gove leaves central bank after a decade in the role; new governor to leave role as head of IMF mission to Djibouti and Somalia
IMF praises Argentina’s new statistical rigour
Fund pleased with progress made reforming statistics but there is still work to be done; IMF willing to provide “technical assistance”
Ukrainian central bank complains of failure to prosecute banking offences
Deputy governor criticises failure to bring “high-profile” court cases against suspected financial criminals; IMF has yet to announce whether it will disburse next tranche of aid
King calls for IMF revamp
Former BoE governor suggests replacing IMF’s executive board with International Monetary and Financial Committee; notes fund may have strayed too far into political territory
Book notes: Priests of prosperity: how central bankers transformed the postcommunist world
Juliet Johnson has produced an interesting account of how central banks in former communist regimes were developed at a time when they had little or no experience of modern financial systems
Frontier markets need framework to strengthen capital flow resilience – IMF paper
Frontier markets are affected by capital flows in similar ways to emerging markets, the paper argues, suggesting a change in the “landscape” of capital flows could have policy implications
Mervyn King on Brexit, crisis supervision, economic rebalancing and reforming the IMF
The former Bank of England governor discusses Brexit, radical regulatory reform, the difficulties rebalancing the European and global economies and an overhaul of the International Monetary Fund
IMF working paper encourages Italian banks to clean up balance sheets
Italian banks are likely to become more profitable as economy recovers, authors say, though their capacity to lend is linked to capital buffers
Belarus central bank reports ‘significant’ credit risk to country’s banking sector
A large proportion of Belarusian banks’ risky debts are owed as a result of financing government, central bank says; report echoes IMF call for major reforms to state-owned enterprises
PBoC gives World Bank green light as China’s first SDR bond issuer
World Bank to issue China’s first bond denominated in special drawing rights, in “landmark” step towards opening up Chinese bond market
Chinese authorities should introduce inflation target – IMF staff
Report by IMF staff sets out ‘key elements’ of transition to more market-based monetary framework; encourages explicit inflation goal and new intermediate target for policy
Bundesbank paper models ‘information contagion’
A Deutsche Bundesbank working paper presents a model of how “information contagion” can cause bank runs and attempts to quantify it using data on Canada’s banking sector
IMF paper explores link between imports and pro-cyclicality of productivity
Research finds firm-level import decisions explain “non-trivial” fraction of fluctuations in aggregate productivity in South Korean manufacturing sector between 2006 and 2012
IMF’s response to self-evaluation report ‘very positive’
Engagement with evaluation "very positive", says IEO official, after it offered broad support to recommendations, with some qualifications
Proposal for calculating capital requirements for concentration risk
Working paper warns “inadequate reflection” on concentration risk can lead to banks holding too little capital; proposes technique for calculating appropriate levels
IMF urges Abenomics ‘reload’ as BoJ struggles
Fund tells Japanese authorities to be clearer and more systematic in setting policy, as government unveils new stimulus; working paper suggests alternative to helicopter money
Parliament keeps door open to monetary financing in Ghana
Parliament approves bill that removes government representative from central bank board, but government would still be able to borrow from central bank to finance deficit; IMF to discuss implications