Africa
Most new economic staff hired as fresh graduates
Recruits from private sector, academia make up smaller portion of new hires
Proportion of central bank economists with PhD rises
Central banks split on funding economic staff with PhD aspirations
Median salary of central bank economists rises as inflation bites
Income remains less aligned with GDP per capita of participating countries
Economics department staff total just over 70 on average
Average number of research economists remains smaller than policy economists
Most central banks forecast currency demand over 1–3 years
Minority of institutions use big data for forecasting purposes
Fewer than 100 staff work in currency divisions on average
Duties including upholding Covid-19 countermeasures in some jurisdictions
Average value of counterfeit banknotes rises
UV ink the most common security tool used in battle against fake banknotes
Polymer adoption stalls in 2023
Only two benchmark respondents have concrete plans to change substrate
Central banks maintain average of four cash centres
Figure has remained stable for the last five years
Slightly more central banks have access-to-cash policies
Almost two-thirds of respondents have access policies and nearly half minimum service rules
Majority of central banks maintain currency denominations
Only a few countries removed denominations from active circulation in past five years
Visual aids nearly universal on banknotes
Majority of respondents use four or five features on their paper currency
Central banks report increase in value of banknotes in circulation
Average volume of notes declines by 2.9% year on year
Central banks report continued fall in cash usage
Share of cash payments remains high in upper-middle income jurisdictions, but falls marginally overall
Public trust: the role of the private sector in exploring digital currency
Digital currencies that effectively protect financial privacy in lawful transactions will garner enduring confidence in the highly integrated networks of the future, argue J Christopher Giancarlo and Daniel Gorfine
Somalia’s Abdullahi on the challenges of re-integration with the international system
The Central Bank of Somalia governor speaks about capacity building, reintroducing the shilling, securing donor support and climate change
Wallstreet and others rank highest for reserves technology services
Ion’s Wallstreet treasury system tops the 2023 rankings
Reserve managers rank JP Morgan top for custody and banking
BlackRock preferred for knowledge transfer and capacity building
Ghanaian MPC holds rates while Guinea opts for 50bp rise
Addison says Ghana’s growth will outstrip IMF forecast but reserves remain extremely low
South Africa and Egypt both hold policy rates
Sarb governor says job of fighting inflation “is not yet done”
Reserve managers vote BlackRock as overall best asset manager
Goldman Sachs and “other” asset management firms also score highly
High income countries less likely to tranche reserves
Overall, 72.4% of central banks divide their portfolios into liquidity and investment sections
Fewer than half of reserve managers perform liquidity stress tests
Approach tends to be more common among African and American institutions
FX reserves commonly invested in US Treasuries, bank deposits
SIBs and EU NextGeneration fund trail behind, as reserve managers avoid infrastructure and crypto