Benchmarking
Material world: the enduring appeal of paper banknotes
Central banks have used space-age polymers to make banknotes for decades. So why does paper remain predominant in banknote production?
Economics Benchmarks 2021 report – executive summary
Covid-19 coloured central banks’ views on the governance of their economics function in the past year, from research topics to forecasting, data, publications and more
2021: The year in review
The year has seen central banks switch from recovery mode to battling inflation. Central Banking looks back at the stories that made the biggest impact in 2021
Economics Benchmarks 2021 report – making sense of the modern economy
Covid-19 coloured central banks’ views on the governance of their economics function in the past year, from research topics to forecasting, data, publications and more
Larger research teams tend to publish more
Central banks with bigger teams report greater publishing volumes, but variation remains
Advanced economies draw on wider range of models
DSGE models and newer techniques more common at advanced economy central banks
Reserve Benchmarks 2021 – presentation
Central Banking’s reserve subject matter specialist Victor Mendez-Barreira speaks with Chris Jeffery about liquidity, reserves coverage, external partners, human and tech resources, and ESG implementation
The matter of minutes: Why open up private deliberations?
Many central banks publish records of MPC meetings, but far fewer publish vote tallies. Where should public scrutiny stop?
Financial Stability Benchmarks 2021 – presentation
Central Banking’s governance subject matter specialist Dan Hardie speaks with Christopher Jeffery about policy committees, governor salaries and terms, and board compositions and functions
Quarterly forecast updates predominate
Frequency of forecasts varies more widely in emerging markets
Data services centralised at minority of central banks
Central data governance and technology services used by three in 10 central banks
Alternative data fuels central bank research
Important research areas include monetary transmission, exchange rates, digitisation, SMEs and climate change, against the backdrop of Covid
Pandemic spurred use of alternative data
Advanced and emerging market economies prioritise different applications
Unemployment forecast by minority of emerging market economy nations
Data highlights differences based on local economic circumstances
Currency Benchmarks 2021 report – executive summary
Perspectives on staffing, circulation, forecasting, note security and composition, outsourcing and more
One in five central bank economists have a PhD
Central banks in Africa lag behind peers in sponsoring PhD programmes
Covid-19 causes bigger growth forecast errors
But central banks perform better at forecasting inflation
Economist salaries outpace GDP per capita
Salaries were six times higher than GDP per capita, on average
Policy economists outnumber research economists
Central banks with their own pure research departments tend to employ more policy economists
Nearly 40% of central banks have financial sector in main forecast model
Semi-structural models remain favoured option for producing key forecasts
Economists tend to perform both policy and research duties
Only around a quarter of economics departments have a pure research function
Currency Benchmarks 2021 report – ensuring confidence in the cash cycle
Perspectives on staffing, circulation, forecasting, substrate choice and security features, outsourcing, access to cash and climate risk
A future-proof RTGS blueprint
Operating hours, access and data standards should all be considered by central banks contemplating an RTGS overhaul
Most currency departments operated remote working models during pandemic
Many central banks employed a split team structure to ensure critical functions were maintained