Eurozone
ECB spruces up premises with tree sculpture
Italian artist creates 17.5 metre sculpture of a tree using bronze and granite to be displayed at the main entrance of the European Central Bank’s headquarters
Draghi stresses willingness to act as ECB cuts inflation forecasts
Governing council holds policy as ECB staff cut inflation forecasts over the forecast horizon; Mario Draghi stresses QE could run beyond September 2016 if necessary
Finnish deputy: international competition will change mortgage lending
Bank of Finland deputy argues conditions for international competition in mortgage lending are ‘improving’ and there is the potential for a ‘substantial impact’ in the eurozone
National Bank of Denmark calls end to crisis measures
Central bank has moved from buying to selling foreign exchange in recent months, opening up room to return deposit limits to more normal levels and re-start government bond issuance
Irish central bank paper finds high cost to hasty austerity
Economists find most of the costs of fiscal consolidation from 2011-13 could have been avoided if policy-makers waited until the zero lower bound was no longer a constraint
Weidmann wary of monetary policy ‘being further co-opted’
Bundesbank president makes case for changes to institutional framework underpinning the monetary union, calling for discussion of ‘Maastricht plus’ and political union
Eurozone inflation ‘may well have’ reached turning point
ECB governing council members suspect underlying inflation reached a turning point earlier this year, but feel it is too soon to say for certain, accounts from July meeting show
Central Banking poll respondents back 'Grexit'
In a narrow majority 87 out of 155 readers say Greece should adopt a new national currency; asked about a variety of monetary systems, most backed a free-floating regime
ECB researchers examine flight to safety during sovereign debt crisis
Working paper tracks geographical distribution of capital flight, finding different movements by intra-eurozone and external investors; movements ceased when OMTs were unveiled
ECB paper models joint default risk with fat tails
Researchers reject normal distribution in favour of one with fatter tails, find ‘unprecedented’ tail risks in 2011-12 fell sharply after the OMT announcement
Bundesbank’s Buch casts doubt on Greek debt relief as talks end
Deputy president takes stance at loggerheads with IMF as latest round of negotiations draws to a close; Greek finance minister strikes upbeat note
Market expectations respond to contractionary shocks, Chilean paper argues
Monetary expectations in major eurozone economies are responsive to contractionary shocks but not expansionary ones, a paper published by the Chilean central bank argues
ECB article examines lack of real convergence in eurozone
Article in latest bulletin points to three factors behind the lack of sustainable real convergence among the countries in eurozone since the creation of the monetary union
Cypriot governor warns of challenge posed by NPLs
Chrystalla Georghadji says the high level of non-performing loans is ‘perhaps the greatest challenge’ facing the banking sector, adding the central bank is ready to focus on dealing with them
IMF flags potential scarcity of sovereign bonds in Europe
‘Selected issues paper’ warns a shrinking pool of securities could ‘pose challenges’ to the implementation of the ECB’s quantitative easing programme
ECB bulletin: Too early to tell if inflation has turned a corner
Inflation in the eurozone appears to be moving upwards, but strip away transitory factors and the picture becomes much more blurry
Varoufakis reveals covert plan for parallel Greek currency
Secret plan to create payment system using accounts attached to Greek tax numbers was designed to be activated if the country came close to exiting the euro
BIS statistics show divergent outlook for credit flows
Contraction in cross-border claims on emerging markets more than offset by growing flows to developed economies, although there are considerable disparities between countries and regions
ECB raises concerns over Greece’s draft resolution law
Hastily assembled legal opinion on draft law warns of possible detrimental effects on the Bank of Greece, including impact on independence, increased liability and ‘operational burden’
Greece uses bridge loan to repay IMF and ECB
Loan received today used immediately to repay debts, while government works to unlock full bailout; Ben Bernanke joins debate with criticism of German trade surplus
ECB lifts veil on ELA as it raises Greek cap
No action on monetary policy but governing council extends further lifeline to Greek banks; Draghi admits policy of keeping emergency liquidity secret is unnecessary in a systemic crisis
ECB’s Mersch calls for stricter convergence in eurozone
Executive board member says convergence should be more strongly enforced, as this could help pave way for common decisions in some areas of fiscal policy
IMF calls for Greek debt relief ‘far beyond’ EU plans
Memo warns public debt is ‘highly unsustainable’ and European leaders will need to provide much greater debt relief than they have discussed up to this point
Greek bank holiday sparks swaps contract chaos
Extended bank closure leaves derivatives payments by end-users in limbo