Africa
Cyber security topples reputational risk as first concern
Overall, close to 39% of institutions place cyber as their top concern, 20% select reputational factors
Market and personnel become key rising risks for central banks
Over 47% of institutions highlight one of these two factors as the fastest-growing risk
Cyber security remains most pressing risk for central banks
For second consecutive year it is singled out as the risk rising the most
Central banks report scant progress on climate risk capabilities
Just 9% of participants have a climate change risk unit, up from 7% last year
Fewer central banks have a centralised risk unit
Share of institutions deploying this structure falls from 66% to 48.5%; op risk overtakes rep risk as top concern
Court rejects bid to arrest CBN governor
State security application comes as Nigerian central bank calls in naira notes and elections near
Earnings power of economists remains above GDP per capita
Emerging market professionals earn lowest median salary, but incomes still more than double national average
More than half of institutions favour semi-structural models
Just 35% of institutions include financial sector in key modelling
Central banks forecast GDP less accurately than inflation
Over half of central banks reviewed models in a bid to project more accurately
Majority of central banks prefer economists with master’s degree
Economists are sponsored more for training than for PhDs
Economics teams constitute just a fraction of central banks’ total workforce
Most institutions have more policy economists than research colleagues
Staff with PhDs make up 21.3% of average economics department
Four-fifths of advanced economy institutions sponsor economists to undertake PhD qualification
Banknotes: October to December 2022
A round-up of news and salient issues that have affected central bankers in the past three months
Central banks judge success of research by number of publications
Inflation and exchange rate most topical issues for central banks
Use of centralised data services increases across institutions
Rise of central data teams has gone hand in hand with greater use of alternative data
Alternative data used at most central banks
Non-traditional data such as Google searches widely used to support research and forecasting
African central banks expect CBDC to boost policy transmission
BIS survey finds greater focus on transmission and financial inclusion among African institutions
Research economists devote more working time to own projects
On average, own research works consume 25% of policy economists’ working time
Advanced economy institutions tend to produce more papers
Emerging market researchers averaged five papers a year in peer-reviewed journals
Research agenda determined across multiple levels
Governors and deputy governors give final sign-off on most research publications
Majority of banks blend research and policy functions
Only one in five jurisdictions restructured economics unit in the past 12 months
Growth and inflation are top forecast indicators
More emerging markets forecast growth and inflation compared with the past year
Banknote volumes and values rose among most central banks
Most recent estimates show volume and value of circulating notes rising in 2022
Banks receive widely varying volumes of damaged cash
Central banks share data on values and volumes of mutilated currency