Africa
Financial and op risk divisions maintain largest staff
Upper-middle income nations tend to have different staffing priorities
Madagascar’s governor on targeting M3 over inflation
Central Bank of Madagascar head Aivo Andrianarivelo speaks about introducing an interest rate corridor, diversifying from dollars to gold, using instant payments to bolster inclusion and drawing on IMF sustainability funding
Share of economics departments with data unit rises
Web scraping and administrative data are top alternative sources for economists
Economists commonly use AI for data analysis
Lower-middle income countries, Africa and Asia-Pacific report lower use of AI
Bank of Uganda launches investigation into $17m ‘hack’
Central bank declines to comment on millions of dollars reportedly stolen via diverted payments
Pandemic macro-pru in Africa was effective – FSI study
Paper from Basel-based institute says relaxing macro-prudential requirements can boost bank lending
Peer-reviewed journals still top gauge for research impact
Smaller teams more likely to consider conference presentations as assessment tool
Inflation and GDP growth forecast errors decrease further
Forecast errors used widely for key model adjustments
Central banks published fewer working papers and articles in 2023
Middle income and low income central banks published less
Time series and semi-structural models widely applied
High income countries more likely to use AI than peers from other income levels
Economic growth and inflation remain most forecast indicators
But year-on-year data show rising priority for exchange rates
Sustainable development: central banks taking the lead
For those still sceptical about the financial sector’s commitment to progress on sustainable development goals and to taking all possible steps to tackle climate change, 2024 has shown that central banks, financial sector regulators and supervisors are…
South Africa makes 25bp cut
Central bank stays cautious but continues easing cycle amid slowing inflation
Policy analysis takes most of PhD economists’ time
Other tasks consume just a quarter of their official hours
Economists’ median salary falls below $30,000 a year
Annual budget of economics departments averages under $1 million
Securing sound deposit protection in East Africa
There is a need to revisit legal frameworks to adopt risk-adjusted premium regimes and establish more comprehensive deposit insurance systems in the East African Community, write Gilbert Nyatanyi and Gloria Tengera
Central banks to maintain independence despite threats – panel
Top central bankers discuss Trump, AI and why they plan to ignore IMF on rate cuts
Policy economists outnumber research colleagues
Economics FTE staff make up 4% of central banks’ overall employees, on average
Economics teams tend to be tailored by institution
But hub and spoke model is prevalent among high income respondents
Portraits on banknotes: a study of the gender gap
Only Australia’s currency has gender parity; overall, less than 10% of portraited banknotes – excluding Elizabeth II – feature female images
Smaller banknote denominations have shorter lifespan
High income central banks produce longer-lasting cash
Crashing the nth party: how third-party service provider risks compound
Cross-border collaboration may help deal with risks from multiple layers of outsourcing
Middle income central banks see largest volume of counterfeit notes
Foil remains least used security feature for banknote production
Majority of central banks have emergency cash inventory
But few respondents say they have alternative strategies in place