Emerging markets
US Treasury opposes ending IMF surcharges
Biden administration rejects initiative championed by Democratic progressives
Emerging market stock returns impacted by dollar – BIS paper
US dollar can drive local financial conditions in equities as well as other markets, authors say
Picking up the pieces: how to tackle the next phase of the Covid crisis
The global economy is heading into dangerous territory, writes Jagjit Chadha. Central banks must honour their commitments to price stability
Fed keeps investors guessing on speed and endpoint of tightening
Investors generally agree the Fed will tighten policy, but how much and when are unclear
Minority of central banks define project risk appetite
Institutional risk and delegated risk appetites defined more often
Minority of central banks use GRC platforms
RSA Archer and SAP named as providers
Reputational risk tops central bank concerns
Cyber security and credit/counterparty risk followed
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
IMF finds Argentina bailout ‘did not deliver on its objectives’
Largest-ever IMF loan was ineffective and “not sufficiently robust”
Central bank social media trends in the ‘Instagram age’
Uptake of visual social media platforms rises, as Facebook usage plateaus
Advanced economies draw on wider range of models
DSGE models and newer techniques more common at advanced economy central banks
Quarterly forecast updates predominate
Frequency of forecasts varies more widely in emerging markets
Brazilian MPC tightens rates again despite sluggish growth
MPC “foresees another adjustment of the same magnitude” at next meeting
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
BIS calls for systemic approach to non-banks
“It is essential to reduce the need for emergency central bank support,” says report
Tackling surging inflation
Central banks around the world are grappling with rapid price rises, with some taking very different routes to one another
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
How Turkey’s president created chaos in economic policy-making
Observers allege presidential domination of the central bank, unauthorised FX transactions and untrustworthy statistics
Policy economists outnumber research economists
Central banks with their own pure research departments tend to employ more policy economists
Economists tend to perform both policy and research duties
Only around a quarter of economics departments have a pure research function