Eurozone
Sovereign credit ratings have asymmetric impact, ECB paper finds
Working paper finds market volatility depends on whether the rating was an upgrade or a downgrade; identifies channels of contagion between countries
Target2 'filled in' balance of payments gaps during euro crisis, NY Fed paper finds
Federal Reserve Bank of New York study finds adjustment to the pullback of private capital during the euro crisis made less harsh by Target2
Lithuania governor woos eurozone counterparts
Vitas Vasiliauskas meets central bank heads across eurozone to present Lithuania’s case for entry; Marek Belka calls for review of Poland’s euro prospects
BoE must balance ‘paradox' of more eurozone integration, says Cunliffe
Deputy governor for financial stability says cost of dysfunctional single currency favours ‘inconvenient' eurozone integration
ECB ‘obliged' to introduce OMT to defend price stability, Draghi tells Bundesbank
ECB president Mario Draghi tells a Bundesbank symposium in Frankfurt that OMTs build on the doctrine adhered to by the German central bank for several decades
IMF praises ‘dramatic’ turnaround in Spanish bank sector
Final report on Spain’s financial sector reform programme says ‘steadfast’ implementation paid dividends, but warns of a number of alarming trends still prevalent in the financial sector
Home repossession rules explain Europe's divergent debt profiles, paper finds
Discussion paper published by the Deutsche Bundesbank says differences in legal processes explain the ‘striking differences’ in debt profiles of each eurozone country
Eurozone crisis countries had to grasp the nettle of reform, says Cœuré
Delaying reforms until countries had emerged from the crisis would have been counterproductive, ECB board member says; effect of zero lower bound has been overstated, too
ECB working paper unpicks household demand for mortgage types
Paper comes to predicted conclusion that greater income volatility reduces demand for variable-rate mortgages; authors also reckon borrowers on variable rates benefited from lower rates
Risk discrimination 'essential', argues Bank of Spain deputy
Fernando Restoy rebuffs 'excessively simplistic approaches that prevent capital requirements being adapted to each bank's business model'
IMF warns recapitalisation of Slovenian banks is a 'stop-gap solution'
Report urges deeper reforms of under-capitalised corporate and banking sectors; says ECB comprehensive risk assessment expected later this year could expose additional capital shortfalls
IMF paper models sovereign restructuring in monetary union
Paper prepared by economists in IMF's fiscal affairs department shows the restructuring country's economy would suffer more if its residents hold most of its sovereign debt
ECB working paper says sovereign spreads driven by fundamentals
Paper finds that before the crisis, eurozone sovereign spreads were somewhat decoupled from fundamentals, but since then, country-specific factors have played a bigger role than regional contagion
ECB's Cœuré says euro members 'not strong enough to survive on their own'
Executive board member urges return to 'original vision'; says banking union 'not achieved by mutualising risks' and calls for increased German consumption
Constâncio predicts ‘gradual decline’ in size of eurozone banking sector
European Central Bank vice-president says companies will increasingly turn to capital markets instead of banks for their financing needs
Maltese governor says ECB’s policy will ‘take a while’ to hit periphery
Josef Bonnici attributes the drop in loans to the private sector in the eurozone’s stressed countries to the ‘weak and uneven’ monetary policy transmission mechanism
Eurozone household debt varies based on institutions, paper finds
Repossession periods are the strongest single determinant of the distribution of secured debt in different member states of the eurozone, with fewer borrowers where repossession periods are longer
Lithuania on track to join euro at second time of asking
The Bank of Lithuania has started publishing regular forecasts that keep track of the country’s progress towards meeting the convergence criteria necessary for accession to the eurozone
Bundesbank’s Dombret defends Germany’s current account surplus
Andreas Dombret says the strength of German households, businesses and public sector is a stabilising factor for the eurozone as a whole; calls for acceptance of the structural differences between economies
Greek paper finds Turkish economy bucks EU trends
Academics use a GVAR model to examine interlinkages between southeast European economies and how they react to eurozone macroeconomic policy; Turkey bucks trends followed by EU members
Bundesbank warns on ‘moral hazard' from low interest rate environment
Bundesbank's latest annual financial stability report fears insurance companies and banks are losing out in the low interest rate environment; deputy says ‘primary law' must change for SRM to work
Latvia central bank brings rates and rules in line with eurozone
Bank of Latvia slashes rates to match ECB's ultra-low 0.25%; economists say the move, along with new regulations, was designed purely to ready the country to join the eurozone in January
Mersch tells Greece not to forget future generations
Executive board member praises country for its ‘extraordinary efforts to refute the naysayers’, but warns hesitation now will force future generations to bear the burden of past mistakes
Fall in OECD inflation highlights advanced economy monetary policy dilemmas
New OECD figures show lower annual inflation rates despite Japanese CPI turning positive; pressure mounts on ECB and Fed to counteract trend, but analysts unsure with what tools