Central Banking
Zimbabwe returns charity donations
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on Friday repaid $7.3m to a charity after it was found to have confiscated donations pledged to fight killer diseases.
RBNZ to operate TAF to avert liquidity crunch
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand on Friday said it will follow the Federal Reserve's lead in establishing a Term Auction Facility (TAF) operation to enhance liquidity.
Korea cuts for second time in a fortnight
Bank of Korea chopped a quarter-point off its key rate on Friday on signs of a further weakening in domestic economic activity.
Real and financial sector linked - Fed's Warsh
The US economy will recover sooner than expected if banks are willing to find new ways of lending, said Kevin Warsh, a governor at the Federal Reserve.
Productivity slump triggered subprime woe
The downturn in the US housing sector was triggered by a productivity slowdown that begun in 2004, finds a new paper from the New York Federal Reserve.
Focus of monetary policy research often misplaced
The focus on determinacy in recent monetary policy research is misplaced, Bennett McCallum, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, argues.
IMF sees advanced economies contracting in 2009
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday revised downwards its estimate for global growth next year by four-fifths of a percentage point to 2.2% and said it believes the advanced economies will contract over 2009.
Bank shocks with steepest cut for 24 years
The Bank of England on Thursday lopped one-and-a-half basis points off its benchmark rate for the first time since August 1984, confounding expectations of a far less severe move.
Markets obey laws of nature not math: NBB's Praet
The "once in a century" credit crisis demands a fundamental re-think in the way we view, and regulate, financial systems, Peter Praet, an executive director at the National Bank of Belgium and a member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, has…
Czechs surprise with 75 basis-point cut
The Czech National Bank slashed its key rate by 75 basis points to 2.75% on Thursday on signs inflation risked falling below target next year.
ECB, SNB cut by 50 basis points
The European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday lopped a quarter point off its key rate and indicated further cuts were likely. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) also cut the upper and lower bounds by the same margin.
BoJ minutes: growth sluggish
Japan's economic growth has been sluggish, reflecting earlier rises in energy and materials prices and weaker exports, say the minutes of the Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Council meeting on 6 and 7 October.
Bundesbank on the causes of home bias
Research from the Bundesbank studies why the tendency to hold domestic paper prevails despite the rise in cross-country capital flows over the last two decades.
Bank of Finland: Corruption bad for growth
Countries with low levels of corruption tend to have higher output, states an article from the Bank of Finland.
Philippine's Tetangco - links with US decisive
The macroeconomic impact of the current turmoil on Philippine's economy will depend on trade links with the United States, remittances and investments, said Amando Tetangco, the governor of the Central Bank of Philippines.
Norway's Qvigstad on the benefits of transparency
Central bank transparency improves the quality of both communication and the decision-making process, said Jan Qvigstad, the deputy governor of the Norges Bank.
Chile's deficit under the lens
A new paper by the Central Bank of Chile describes and assesses the main causes of the institution's deficit.
Riksbank board unanimous on cut
The executive board of the Riksbank unanimously backed a lowering of the repo rate by 50 basis points to 3.75%, the minutes of the 22 October meeting reveal.
BoJ head hints at bubble-bursting role for rates
Masaaki Shirakawa, the governor of the Bank of Japan, has indicated that monetary policy should act on asset-price bubbles.
Bank to cut by 100 basis points?
The Bank of England will likely cut rates by a full percentage point on Thursday, some leading City of London economists believe.
Fed acts to enforce benchmark target
The Federal Reserve has moved to correct the disparity between its federal funds target and actual rates by raising the amount of interest paid on excess reserves held at the central bank.
Dollar Libor spreads plummet to pre-Lehman levels
Money-market tensions showed further signs of easing on Wednesday, with the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) for three-month dollar loans plunging 20 basis points to 2.51%.
NY Fed hires Bear Stearns' risk-management head
The chief risk officer at Bear Stearns, the now-defunct investment bank, has joined the New York Federal Reserve to advise on bank supervision.
Obama win promises to lift some of the gloom
Barack Obama's clear victory in the US presidential election opens a new chapter in America's history. The positive impact of this powerful signal of change on the economy and on central banking should not be underestimated, says Marco Annunziata, the…