Central Banking
Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee Minutes
MINUTES - Minutes of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee Meeting released on 20 November for the meeting of 6 and 7 November 2002. The nine MPC members voted on a proposal to maintain the repo rate at 4.0%. Seven voted in favour of this with…
Bank of England Press Release
PRESS RELEASE - In a speech at the London School of Economics 19 November, Mervyn King, Deputy Governor, Bank of England, explains in detail why price stability is desirable and sets out the benefits it has brought to the UK - The Inflation Target 10…
King on The Inflation Target 10 Years on
SPEECH - In the speech 'The Inflation Target 10 Years on' Mervyn King of the Bank of England said the Monetary Policy Committee could not target asset prices directly but spent a lot of time questioning how such changes should affect policy. He believes…
Bank of England voted 7-2 to hold rates
The Bank of England seem to be moving away from an easing bias, minutes published Wednesday show. The previous record showed three committee members wanted a quarter point rate cut but this time Kate Barker shifted back with the majority in favour of…
BOJ downgrades economy view, first time in a year
The Bank of Japan's monthly report comes a day after it resisted pressure to further stimulate the lethargic economy at the Banks monetary policy meeting. The report said inflation remained on a downward trend and that with exports and output flat there…
Greenspan - Fed has monetary tools left if needed
Alan Greenspan said on Tuesday that war worries were "a very large hurdle" hindering the recovery but that once these concerns were out of the way the economy should rebound. He also called on Germany and Japan to increase efforts to deregulate their…
Sveriges Riksbank press release
PRESS RELEASE - Governor Urban Backstrom participated on Tuesday in a seminar. The theme was "A decade since the krona fell" and Mr Backstrom presented conclusions that can be drawn from the change of stabilisation policy regime that the krona's fall…
Greenspan on Int'l Financial Risk Management
SPEECH - In the speech 'International Financial Risk Management' Alan Greenspan of the Federal Reserve said episodes such as September 11 indicate that the ability of economies to absorb unexpected shocks has increased over the past two decades. He also…
Serb payment reform to prompt new bank mergers
Yugoslavia will shift responsibility for payment systems in January 2003 to commercial banks and away from the state controlled central bank. The move towards a more competitive payment systems market is likely to prove a testing time for Serbia and…
Brazil c bank raises key interest rate to 22 pct
After a sharp increase in rates by three percent, which we reported just last month, the Banco Central Do Brasil has again raised interest rates. This time a more modest rise of one point was signalled by the central bank. Inflation is a concern with…
Chicago Fed Letter, December 2002 Special Issue
REPORT - The latest Chicago Fed Letter is titled 'Financial market and regulatory behaviour over the business cycle'. It asks the questions, should regulation and supervision be used to smooth out the business cycle? and how do financial firms respond to…
Dodge on promoting Canada's economic welfare
SPEECH - In the speech 'Promoting Canada's Economic and Financial Welfare' David Dodge of the Bank of Canada said Canada's inflation target, which aims to keep the rate at the mid point of a 1-3 per cent range, has firmly anchored expectations at the 2…
Greenspan speaks at book launch
SPEECH - Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan spoke at the launch of a new book by Allan Meltzer. He described the book, History of the Federal Reserve Volume I as an indispensable input for monetary economists and economic historians alike. Drafts of the book…
Bank of Slovenia - Annual Report 2001
ANNUAL REPORT - The Bank of Slovenia has published its Annual Report for the year ended 2001. The report says the main feature of the past year has been the slowdown in the economy around the globe with domestic demand modest also. Large financial…
BOJ minutes reveal wariness over stock-buying plan
As the Bank of Japan prepares to implement its new stock buying policy minutes to the Bank of Japan meeting 17-18 September show some board members expressed skepticism over the plan. The minutes have not yet been published but were obtained by a news…
JGBs higher as BoJ leaves policy unchanged
The Bank of Japan said Tuesday it would maintain current policy for money market operations. The vote was unanimous. Although the BoJ is under political pressure to ease further it was felt by many that they are waiting to see what impact their recent…
George moves to allay fears on public finances
Edward George agrees with Mervyn King that the UK housing market is set for a dramatic slowdown in price rises. He joins the stability and growth pact debate effectively criticising it by raising concerns about spending cuts and tax increases when the…
Welteke says risks to economic growth are high
Bundesbank chief Ernst Welteke implied the ECB may be close to easing interest rates. Speaking in Stockholm he said that the euro zone economy had risks on the downside and that low growth posed more of a threat than inflation.
Redefine the Bank of Canada
ARTICLE - An extract from former governor of the Bank of Canada John Crow's new book 'Making Money' has Crow on monetary policy. He says it's time for the federal government to clarify responsibility.
How to strengthen naira, by Nigeria's Sanusi
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CNB), Dr. Joseph Sanusi, said Monday, that the only way to strengthen the naira at the foreign exchange market was to increase productivity of locally made goods.
Eurozone inflation edges higher
The eurozone inflation rate rose a further point to 2.3 percent it was revealed on Monday. The ECB is not considered to be worried about inflation at the moment with Ernst Welteke recently saying the bank expected inflation would head downwards.
Bank of Japan Press Release
PRESS RELEASE - Bank of Japan, Monetary Policy Meeting held 19 November.
The Inflation Targeting Framework in Norway
RESEARCH - This IMF working paper assesses the institutional and technical design of Norway's inflation targeting framework which was adopted in early 2001, as well as its potential implications for the practical implementation of monetary policy against…
CentralBankNet Monday Special Feature
SPECIAL FEATURE - Mervyn King caused a stir last week saying "I have no wish to go into the pulpit" and lecture people about house prices. But with UK property values at dangerously high levels and the catastrophic consequences for the UK economy if, in…