Central Banking
Warsh's Fed nomination draws criticism, confusion
President Bush's nomination of the 35-year-old White House aide Kevin Warsh for a seat on the Federal Reserve's board has been greeted with criticism and bewilderment by some former Fed officials and economists, according to this article published on…
Euro group set to nominate Buba's Stark to ECB
Eurozone finance ministers are set to nominate Bundesbank vice-president Juergen Stark next week for the European Central Bank executive board post, an EU official told reporters Thursday 9 February.
Comment: The IMF and exchange rate surveillance
The IMF's managing director, Rodrigo de Rato, on Thursday 9 February shed some light on the Fund's thinking over its medium-term strategy in a speech in Rome.
Issing says ECB ready to act on inflation risks
European Central Bank Chief Economist Otmar Issing said the bank is not necessarily embarking on a predetermined course of raising interest rates successively but that it is ready to act to contain higher inflationary risks.
Fiji announces new banknote designs
The Reserve Bank of Fiji on Friday 10 February signed an agreement for the printing of a series of new design Fiji banknotes with De La Rue International Limited of United Kingdom.
RBNZ to raise Settlement Cash Level to $2,000m
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will raise the Settlement Cash Level (SCL) from its current level of $500 million to $2,000 million, for value date 13 February 2006.
Gerd Hausler notifies IMF of intention to leave
Gerd Hausler, Counsellor and Director of the International Monetary Fund's International Capital Markets Department (ICM), has notified IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato of his intention to return to Europe and has asked to be released from his…
Japan's Diet approves Suda's reappointment at BOJ
The Diet gave approval on Friday 10 February to a government plan to retain Miyako Suda as a member of the Bank of Japan's policy panel for a second five-year term.
Albania to adopt inflation target
In this speech delivered in Vienna on January 18, 2006 the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Ardian Fullani, reiterates the central bank's intension to switch to fully-fledged inflation targeting.
IMF letter to the FT
In this letter to the Financial Times on 8 February, 2006, the IMF's assistant director Ashoka Mody, and the Fund's senior resident representative for central Europe and the Baltics, Christoph Rosenberg, question FT columnist Wolfgang Munchau assertion…
Bank of Korea hikes rates again
The Bank of Korea raised its benchmark overnight call rate by 25 basis points at their monthly monetary policy meeting in Seoul yesterday. In doing so, governor Park Seung and his six fellow policymakers raised the overnight call rate to 4%.
BoJ - inflation to accelerate in Q1
The Bank of Japan's (BoJ) nine-member board ended Thursday's monetary policy meeting by keeping policy unchanged. BoJ governor, Toshihiko Fukui, said he expected inflation to accelerate in first quarter of 2006.
BoE leaves rates unchanged
The Bank of England left interest rates unchanged at 4.5% following its two-day monetary policy meeting. The bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) last cut rates in August 2005, when policy rates were reduced by 0.25%.
Big reserve holders in Asia
The president of the Asian Development Bank, Haruhiko Kuroda, told Dow Jones newswires yesterday that "emerging economies in Asia are well advised to decelerate the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves". "Many of them have more than enough", he said.
Comment: BoJ and inflation targeting
As the Bank of Japan's "quantitative easing" policy nears its end, the question of whether the central bank may soon set an explicit inflation target is being hotly debated. Although the BoJ is still resisting the adopting the framework, the tide may…
Bank of Namibia quarterly bulletin
The Bank of Namibia's December quarterly bulletin admits that the "economy performed poorly during the third quarter of 2005".
Geopolitics boost gold - Greenspan
Recently retired US Federal Reserve chariman, Alan Greenspan, is reported to have attributed high gold prices to investor concerns over major geopolitical conflicts and not a reflection of inflation worries.
Palestian transfers can continue - Fischer
The governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, has said Israel can still have economic ties with the Palestinians after Hamas takes over, provided the Islamic militants do not resume attacks on Israel.
Israeli CB deputies to go
The two deputy governors of the Bank of Israel, Meir Sokoler and Avia Spivak, will retire from the central bank at the end of the month. The governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, informed the Israeli Minister of Finance of the move earlier…
Australian rates unchanged
The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday left the overnight cash rate at 5.5%, following its first interest rate meeting of the year. Australia is in the midst of its most stable economic period in three decades, with only one change in monetary policy in…
Emerging market reserves grow in January
Recent data show significant increases in foreign exchange reserves in a number of emerging market economies in January. The Philippines gross international reserves hit an all-time high of $20.504 billion at the end of January on fresh government…
Asian reform
In this speech given at a Wharton business school forum in Mumbai on 6 January, 2006, the governor of the Bank of Thailand, M R Pridiyathorn Devakula, argues that fast growing intra-regional trade between east Asian economies provides evidence that the…
Research on inflation targetting
In this theoretical paper Felipe F. Schwartzman of Princeton University looks at how inflation-targeting central banks using target bands, as opposed to point targets, can go about addressing both inflation and stability biases.
IMF paper on bank regulation
This new IMF working paper argues that "banks will want to influence the bank regulator to favor their interests, and they typically have the means to do so".