Central Banks Not Seeking Weak Currencies: Trichet

Leading central bankers are not advocating weak currency policies and back more flexible exchange rates, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet said after they met here on Monday. “Colleagues were very much in line with the present consensus as regards the necessity to have progressively more exchange rate flexibility,” he told... Read more...

China Central Bank Chief

Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, told a Caixin financial conference Friday that the so-called QE2 bond-buying announcement now roiling emerging markets, including China, “is not necessarily optimal policy for the world,” given the U.S. dollar’s pivotal role in international trade and settlements. But China considers... Read more...

China Says Flood of Dollars Could Spark New Crisis

Unrestrained printing of dollars could spark a new global crisis, an adviser to China’s central bank warned Thursday as Asian governments braced for an unwanted flood of capital into their markets following the Federal Reserve’s move to inject more money into the U.S. economy. Opposition by Beijing and other governments to the Fed’s... Read more...

Bank Indonesia Maintains Rate

Indonesia’s central bank kept its policy rate unchanged yesterday at a historic low of 6.5% for the 15th straight month, reinforcing expectations it will not raise rates until the second quarter of 2011. Consumer price data for October, released on Monday, was relatively benign, and showed inflation on course to be within the authorities’ end-year... Read more...

Romania’s Central Bank Lifts Inflation Outlook

Romania’s central bank on Thursday raised its inflation forecast for this year and next as an increase in VAT pushed up prices. Governor Mugur Isarescu said the central bank now sees 2010 inflation at 8.2%, up from 7.8% it had predicted in August. The outlook for next year has revised up to 3.4% from 3.1%. In its latest inflation report, the central... Read more...

Seoul Central Bank Seeks Capital Inflow Controls

South Korea’s central bank called Thursday for measures to control massive foreign capital inflows, as new US monetary easing heightens worries about a destabilising flood of capital into emerging markets. A senior finance ministry official said separately that Seoul will “actively” seek further ways to curb excessive inflows, following... Read more...

Central Banks Across the Atlantic Stand in Contrast to Fed

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank kept monetary policy on hold Thursday, demonstrating dramatically different approaches on both sides of the Atlantic a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced a new massive bond-buying program. The European Central Bank left its key lending rate unchanged at a record low 1%, as expected. And in... Read more...

Brazil to Fight US-China ‘Currency War’ at G20 Summit

Brazil will be looking to fight a “currency war” it sees underway between the United States and China that is threatening its export sector, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday. “I am going to the G20 to fight” this, he said in a joint media conference with his elected successor, Dilma Rousseff, who takes over... Read more...

The Fed at Jekyll Island

Well isn’t this cute? Just days after the Federal Reserve will announce it has launched QE2, the Fed will hold a major conference at  Jekyll Island, celebrating the secret meeting held 100 years ago that resulted in the creation of the Fed. The island is off the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia. In November 1910, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and... Read more...

US Federal Reserve’s Latest Bubble Threatens Mayhem

Yet it’s not just prospects for a Japanese-style lost decade that are driving bond yields towards record lows. Anticipation of further QE – whereby central banks flood the economy with cash by buying up government debt – is creating a self-feeding spiral of ever-falling rates. This is an accident waiting to happen. Yet policymakers seem determined... Read more...

Ruble Hits New Low on Central Bank Rumors

The Russian ruble hit a fresh low against the dollar-euro basket Monday, weakening as tax selling of foreign currencies dried up and on rumors the central bank was again planning to widen the ruble’s trading band. “Most of the speculative positions in the market continue to bet on ruble strengthening, and the central bank’s actions lately have... Read more...

ECB Buys Irish Bonds as Spread Over Bunds Widens to Record

The European Central Bank bought Irish government bonds today, according to three traders with knowledge of the transactions. The ECB purchased debt maturing in 2019 and 2025, one of the traders said under condition of anonymity because the deals are confidential. A central bank spokesman declined to comment when contacted by telephone in Frankfurt. Read... Read more...

China Lets Hong Kong Buy Yuan Assets

China granted the Hong Kong Monetary Authority a license to invest in yuan stocks and bonds, giving the city’s central bank the opportunity to diversify its $266 billion in reserves. The China Securities Regulatory Commission included the HKMA in its Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor scheme in October, according to a statement posted on the... Read more...

Australia Central Bank Raises Key Rate

Australia’s central bank jacked up its key interest rate in a surprise move Tuesday that aims to ward off higher inflation as the nation’s economy booms amid strong Asian demand for iron ore and other minerals. The Australian dollar shot up more than one U.S. cent to nearly $1 immediately after the decision to raise the rate by a quarter... Read more...

India Central Bank Raises Rates

India’s central bank raised interest rates for a sixth time this year in Asia’s fastest round of increases and said the chance of further policy tightening in the “immediate future is relatively low.” The Reserve Bank of India boosted the repurchase rate by a quarter-point to 6.25 percent and the reverse repurchase rate by a similar margin to... Read more...

Carney Shuts Door on Liquidity Programs as Fed Readies QE2

Governor Mark Carney is closing the door on liquidity programs the Bank of Canada started during the credit crisis, just as the Federal Reserve may expand asset purchases to sustain the U.S. economic recovery. Canada’s central bank will reduce the relative amount of bonds available to securities dealers at government auctions, reversing steps it took... Read more...

China May Shift Monetary Policy Stance

China must be ready to shift to a “prudent” monetary policy from its “moderately loose” stance at present as the economy stabilises, an academic adviser to the central bank said on Tuesday. The comments by Li Daokui, who sits on the central bank’s monetary policy committee, are the clearest official suggestion that Beijing... Read more...

How the US Central Bank is Propping Up Europe’s Dodgiest Economies

It’s all about America this week. The world’s markets will be on tenterhooks until Wednesday’s over. By then, we should have a good idea of the results of the mid-term elections. More importantly, the Federal Reserve will have revealed how much more money it plans to print. The Fed’s money printing has annoyed leaders of many... Read more...

European Central Bank Purchased Irish Government Bonds Today

The European Central Bank bought Irish government bonds today, according to three traders and strategists with knowledge of the transactions. The ECB purchased debt maturing between 2011 and 2020, one of the traders said, under condition of anonymity because the deals are confidential. A central bank spokesman declined to comment when contacted by telephone... Read more...

Bank of Japan Details Plan to Buy Assets

The Bank of Japan made no major policy moves at its meeting on Thursday, but said that a plan to spend 5 trillion yen ($61 billion) buying assets was a “strong option” if the outlook for the economy sharply deteriorated. The central bank also moved up its next policy review to begin Nov. 4, right after the Federal Reserve’s meeting. Markets took... Read more...

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