Financial crisis
RBA's Edey Confidence crisis no threat to recovery
AUSTRALIA - Fears that the global economic recovery has stalled have been overplayed, with Japan, the rest of Asia, and the United States growing steadily despite the crisis of confidence in stockmarkets, the Reserve Bank said yesterday.
Brazil c bank holds rates with a downward bias
BRAZIL - Brazil's central bank held its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 18 percent on Wednesday as financial turmoil ahead of October presidential elections continued to batter the currency and fan inflation.
Accounting for reserves
John Nugée highlights the disparities in alternative accounting treatment of external reserves. Portfolio management decisions increasingly have to take these into account, with unforeseen consequences for markets.
IMF Survey, 5 August
REPORT - IMF Survey, Topical coverage of the IMF's activities, policies, and research, 5 August. Includes Jack Boorman on the Argentina crisis and lessons to be learned from it.
Uruguay set to receive IMF money to avert crisis
URUGUAY - Uruguay was yesterday set to receive $1.5bn (£950m) from the International Monetary Fund and impose limited restrictions on bank withdrawals in an effort to avert a collapse of its once-vaunted financial system.
Papua New Guinea's central bank wants spending cut
PAPUA NEW GUINEA - The Bank of Papua New Guinea yesterday warned that the incoming government could face a financial crisis similar to those in 1994 and 1999 following a 210.5m kina hole in the budget deficit in the first half of this year.
Japan-style financial crisis looms for Taiwan
ARTICLE - A researcher with the Asian Development Bank Institute said Thursday that indications are Taiwan may be due for a crisis like the one that hit Japan in 1997.
Rumours persist of emergency fed meeting
US - The US Federal Reserve refused to comment Wednesday on rumours that it was considering an emergency meeting in response to the collapse in the stock markets.
Soros says central banks should bailout Brazil
ARTICLE - In the wake of the current economic crisis in Brazil, George Soros has said that leading central banks should open their discount windows and refinance the holders of Brazilian debt. Indeed, he expressed surprise that central banks had not…
Brazil maintains steady interest rates
BRAZIL - Brazil's central bank yesterday maintained its prime interest rate at 18.5 per cent for the third consecutive month after recent market turmoil began fuelling inflation fears.
IMF to support Uruguay and Brazil
US - The International Monetary Fund has moved to provide financial help to Uruguay and Brazil, both affected by the crisis in Argentina.
The role of fiscal policy in crisis situations
ARTICLE - Flemming Larsen, Director of the IMF Office in Europe, has responded to Joseph Stiglitz's in Les Echos on June 3, 'L'actualite de Keynes'. Larsen counters criticisms that the IMF imposes hardship on crisis-stricken countries, as they only point…
Private sector consensus on sov debt restructuring
PRESS RELEASE - A joint press release issued by private sector financial industry leaders announces a consensus inspired by market-based principles on crisis management and sovereign debt restructuring, June 11.
Speech by David Dodge of Bank of Canada, 14 May
SPEECH - In a speech titled 'International Financial Architecture and the Resolution of Financial Crises' Dodge reviewed the progress made in strengthening the international financial architecture, preventing global financial crises, and expediting…
Fraga sees crisis in Argentina as "worrying"
BRAZIL - Central Bank chairman Arminio Fraga said on Friday that the crisis in neighboring Argentina is "extremely worrying". He compared Argentina to Brazil, stating the former has yet to restructure its state finances, which he said was carried out…
Argentine Peso will not be fixed, says Lavagna
ARGENTINA - Argentina's banks and exchange markets will open today for the first time in nine days, as the new economy minister, Roberto Lavagna, attempts to calm fears of a wholesale collapse of the financial system.
Volcker seen as likely to step aside at Andersen
USA - Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman sought to help embattled Arthur Andersen LLP map out a future, now looks likely to step aside, deepening the crisis within the accounting firm, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported.
Argentina's former economy minister charged
ARGENTINA - Domingo Cavallo, Argentine economy minister till the country's debt crisis toppled four governments in a row in December, has been formally charged with arms smuggling.
McDonough - Argentina must find its own solutions
ARGENTINA - The solutions to Argentina's current economic crisis must be found mostly by the country's own leaders, rather than through bailouts from outside the troubled nation, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William McDonough said Tuesday.
Bies - Insolvent co's should be allowed to fail
US - The financial collapse of Enron Corp. (ENRNQ) didn't have a widespread effect on the U.S. economy, Federal Reserve Governor Susan Bies said Thursday.
Dallas Fed's Economic and Financial Review
RESEARCH - "Banking and Currency Crisis Recovery: Brazil's Turnaround of 1999" analyzes the Brazilian recovery, focusing on the freedom Brazilian bank health gave the central bank to pursue a postcrisis monetary policy.
Japan govt looks to great depression for econ fix
ARTICLE - More than a decade of economic stagnation, marked by financial crisis and deflation that brings the economy to its knees. Then, remarkably, a rapid recovery after a debt-buying binge by the central bank.
Argentina's Galicia aims for debt accord this week
ARGENTINA - Argentina's largest private bank, Banco Galicia , expects this week to find a foreign partner to reduce its $1.5 billion debt as financial crisis hits the embattled sector, a company executive said on Monday.
Argentina unveils crisis package
ARGENTINA - Argentina's latest move to end the country's worst economic crisis in decades has been welcomed by observers, eager to see a return to normality.