Research
BIS Quarterly Review, March 2005
The Bank for International Settlements published its March 2005 Quarterly Review on Monday 7 March. In the report the BIS said that Asian banks have reduced the share of deposits held in US dollars in favour of other currencies like the euro.
RTGS & hybrid payment systems: a comparison
This Bank of England Working Paper published on Tuesday 1 March contrasts Real-Time Gross Settlement and hybrid payment systems that are based on payment offset, using a two-period, multi-bank model. It finds that hybrid payment systems outperform RTGS…
Fed Reserve Bank of St Louis Review, Mar/Apr 2005
The latest edition of the St Louis Fed's Review for March-April 2005 includes the article "Communication, transparency, accountability: Monetary policy in the twenty-first century" by Otmar Issing. The issue also includes a paper by Ellen Meade titled …
Government leadership and central bank design
This Working Paper published by Vanderbilt University investigates the impact on economic performance of the timing of moves in a policy game between the government and the central bank for a government with both distributional and stabilization…
Report on payment systems in accession countries
The European Central Bank published the latest addendum to the report entitled "Payment and securities settlement systems in the accession countries" (second edition) on Monday 28 February.
Bank of Japan Monthly Report, February 2005
The Bank of Japan published the English version of its January 2005 monthly report on 21 February. In the report the BoJ said the economy continues to recover, leaving its view unchanged for a third consecutive month.
ECB's new version of 'General Documentation'
The European Central Bank (ECB) published on Monday 21 February a revised version of the document entitled "The implementation of monetary policy in the euro area: General documentation on Eurosystem monetary policy instruments and procedures" (generally…
Bank of Canada Review, Winter 2004
The Bank of Canada published its Review for Winter 2004 on 17 February. The Review contains four articles including "The Bank of Canada as Lender of Last Resort". The authors review the policy framework that guides the Bank's lender-of-last-resort…
Deutsche Bundesbank Monthly Report, January 2005
The Deutsche Bundesbank published the English version of its January 2005 Monthly Report on 14 February. "The available indicators continue to suggest only weak overall production growth in the final months of last year," the bank said in the report.
BIS: Inflation targeting, asset prices, imbalances
This BIS Working Paper published on 10 February attempts to conceptualize the debate regarding the role of asset prices and perceived financial imbalances in the formation of monetary policy from the perspective of theoretically optimal policy responses.
Federal Reserve's Monetary Policy Report, Feb 2005
Presenting the Federal Reserve's Monetary Policy Report to the Congress on Wednesday 16 February, Alan Greenspan said in the seven months since he last testified before the Committee, the US economic expansion has firmed, overall inflation has subsided,…
Reforming the Stability and Growth Pact
The IMF published a Discussion Paper "Reforming the Stability and Growth Pact" on Tuesday 15 February. The paper says that few changes to the rules seem necessary, but the Excessive Deficit Procedure needs a stronger focus on policies rather than…
ECB Monthly Bulletin, February 2005
The European Central Bank published its February 2005 Monthly Bulletin on Thursday saying recent data on economic activity suggest ongoing moderate growth in the fourth quarter of 2004 and a broadly unchanged situation around the new year.
Treasury papers reveal Black Wednesday losses
UK Treasury papers released on Wednesday showed that the cost of intervention in the currency market during the period before Britain's "Black Wednesday" exit from the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 were £3.3bn, according to the Treasury's estimates in…
Inflation differentials among euro area countries
In a paper presented at the joint American Economic Association session 'The Theory of Optimum Currency Areas Revisited' Hermann Remsperger of the Deutsche Bundesbank reviews the development, potential causes and macroeconomic implications of inflation…
Paper on optimal central bank independence
This Working Paper from Vanderbilt University formulates the problem of monetary policy delegation as a two-stage non-cooperative game between the government and the central bank.
Roubini and Setser predict end of Bretton Woods 2
Nouriel Roubini and Brad Setser have released a new paper prophesising the end of the so-called "Bretton Woods 2" system within the next two years.
Is the IMF's mandate still relevant?
In an article published on 1 February IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato said that although the world has changed dramatically since the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944, the IMF's role remains as vital as ever.
Deutsche Bundesbank Monthly Report, December 2004
The Deutsche Bundesbank's December 2004 Monthly Report said growth in the German economy faltered in the third quarter of 2004.
RBA Statement on Monetary Policy, February 2005
The Reserve Bank of Australia published its February 2005 Statement on Monetary Policy on 7 February. After a strong year in 2004 the world economy retains momentum, with growth continuing to be led by the United States and China, the report says.
IMF paper on currency crises
This IMF Working Paper tests the implications of a number of theoretical models that attempt to highlight the dynamics behind currency crises. The empirical findings provide support for the view that a deterioration in economic fundamentals and the…
Book review - Samuel Brittan's 'Against the flow'
Samuel Brittan has been one of the Financial Times' leading columnists for nearly thirty years. This recently published book collects together the most important of his writings from the last three decades.
Capitalising central banks: A net worth approach
This IMF Working Paper provides a simple, quantitative, net worth-based, approach to assessing the need for central bank capital. It derives a concept of "core capital" as the minimum capital needed by a central bank to ensure the credibility of its…
New York Fed's Foreign Exchange Operations report
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Thursday 3 February in its quarterly report to the US Congress that the US monetary authorities did not intervene in the foreign exchange markets during the October - December 2004 quarter.