According to the IMF Executive Board the recent crisis has made clear the need for mandatory and regular assessments of financial stability for countries with large and interconnected financial systems. Economies with financial sectors that have the greatest impact on global financial stability are now required to undergo in-depth reviews of their financial health by the International Monetary Fund every five years. All of the IMF’s 187 member countries are already required to undergo an annual economic health check-up, known as an Article IV consultation. In addition, Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) offers the opportunity to all member countries to undergo, on a voluntary basis, a comprehensive financial sector assessment. The financial stability component of the voluntary FSAP will now be a mandatory part of the IMF’s surveillance for the world’s top 25 financial sectors. Under the Fund’s existing legal framework, it is open to the Fund to require members with systemically important financial sectors to engage in regular mandatory financial stability assessments under Article IV while not requiring such assessments of other members. The mandatory financial stability assessments will comprise three elements: 1) An evaluation of the source, probability, and potential impact of the main risks to macro-financial stability in the near term, based on an analysis of the structure and soundness of the financial system and its interlinkages with the rest of the economy; 2) An assessment of each countries’ financial stability policy framework, involving an evaluation of the effectiveness of financial sector supervision against international standards; and 3) An assessment of the authorities’ capacity to manage and resolve a financial crisis should the risks materialize, looking at the country’s liquidity management framework, financial safety nets, crisis preparedness and crisis resolution frameworks.
For defining systemic importance for this exercise a conceptual framework was developed by the IMF, BIS, and FSB. This framework approaches systemic importance from both a domestic and a global point of view. It identifies the following three key concepts: (i) size, i.e., the volume of financial services provided by an individual financial institution or market; (ii) interconnectedness, i.e., the extent of linkages with other financial institutions or markets; and (iii) substitutability, i.e., the extent to which other institutions or markets can provide the same services in the event of the failure of part of the system. The methodology for identifying jurisdictions with systemically important financial sectors is a three-stage process that uses available financial data for the entire Fund membership. The results identify 25 jurisdictions with the most systemically important financial sectors, which cover almost 90 percent of the global financial system and represent almost 80 percent of global economic output. At present the countries, in order of ranking, are: United Kingdom, Germany, United States, France, Japan, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Canada, Switzerland, China, Belgium, Australia, India, Ireland, Hong Kong, Brazil, Russian Federation, Korea, Austria, Luxembourg, Sweden, Singapore, Turkey and Mexico.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Cause Enough for RBI to Pause?
RBI’s tightening cycle was almost unanimously presumed to continue in its September policy review, however, the global economic scenario has clouded considerably recently and though the Indian economy seems to be steaming on there are a few warning signs which ought to be heeded before it is too late.
Growth in the world's largest economy decelerated to a pace of 1.6 percent, signaling a more pronounced slowdown in the recovery from recession. July consumer spending a key driver of US economic growth, usually accounting for two-thirds of output rose 0.4% and incomes rose a mere 0.2%, with spending outpacing income. The US Unemployment rate for August came in higher as forecasted at 9.6%, while the Change in Nonfarm Payrolls for the same period showed a better than predicted shed of 54 thousand jobs. However, the Change in Manufacturing Payrolls showed a shed of 27 thousand jobs, which is actually worse than the predicted outcome, and also Change in Private Payrolls showed that jobs added were lower than expected. Europe looked better; economic confidence in the 16 countries that use the euro rose to its highest level in nearly two-and-a-half years during August, as unemployment concerns eased somewhat. The UK economy expanded at 1.6% year-on-year, faster than previously estimated in the second quarter in the biggest growth spurt since 2001 as companies rebuilt stocks and construction work surged.
Japan's government and the central bank had to throw the economy a double lifeline; accompanied by an unanimous vote to keep its key interest rate at a 0.1 percent the central bank unveiled a new six-month low-interest loan program to financial institutions to boost liquidity, combined with an existing three-month funds-supplying operation worth 20 trillion yen ($236 billion) so that banks would have access to a total of 30 trillion yen ($355 billion).
India's economy grew 8.8 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal, its best performance since 2007, led by a 12.4 percent year-on-year surge in manufacturing, a 9.7 percent leap in services and an 8.9 percent jump in construction and was also boosted by agricultural output expansion of 2.8 percent. Yet many economists suggest that the central bank, which has hiked rates four times since the start of the year to curb inflation, should pause its monetary tightening — the most aggressive in the Asia-Pacific region — in the face of the shaky global outlook. If that is not cause enough RBI should possibly heed the warning signals emitted from the slowdown in domestic investment; not only has manufacturing growth slowed from 16.3% in the previous quarter to 12.4%, essential supplies and construction outputs have also shrunk as compared to the previous quarter, while services growth in important sectors have not really picked up. More concerning is the fact that gross fixed capital formation has decelerated compared to the last 2 quarters at a time that it ought to be rising with a need for vast infrastructure spending both for physical and human resources development. Should inflation control measures delinked from monetary policy and targeted at select necessary commodities now be evaluated instead?
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Growth in the world's largest economy decelerated to a pace of 1.6 percent, signaling a more pronounced slowdown in the recovery from recession. July consumer spending a key driver of US economic growth, usually accounting for two-thirds of output rose 0.4% and incomes rose a mere 0.2%, with spending outpacing income. The US Unemployment rate for August came in higher as forecasted at 9.6%, while the Change in Nonfarm Payrolls for the same period showed a better than predicted shed of 54 thousand jobs. However, the Change in Manufacturing Payrolls showed a shed of 27 thousand jobs, which is actually worse than the predicted outcome, and also Change in Private Payrolls showed that jobs added were lower than expected. Europe looked better; economic confidence in the 16 countries that use the euro rose to its highest level in nearly two-and-a-half years during August, as unemployment concerns eased somewhat. The UK economy expanded at 1.6% year-on-year, faster than previously estimated in the second quarter in the biggest growth spurt since 2001 as companies rebuilt stocks and construction work surged.
Japan's government and the central bank had to throw the economy a double lifeline; accompanied by an unanimous vote to keep its key interest rate at a 0.1 percent the central bank unveiled a new six-month low-interest loan program to financial institutions to boost liquidity, combined with an existing three-month funds-supplying operation worth 20 trillion yen ($236 billion) so that banks would have access to a total of 30 trillion yen ($355 billion).
India's economy grew 8.8 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal, its best performance since 2007, led by a 12.4 percent year-on-year surge in manufacturing, a 9.7 percent leap in services and an 8.9 percent jump in construction and was also boosted by agricultural output expansion of 2.8 percent. Yet many economists suggest that the central bank, which has hiked rates four times since the start of the year to curb inflation, should pause its monetary tightening — the most aggressive in the Asia-Pacific region — in the face of the shaky global outlook. If that is not cause enough RBI should possibly heed the warning signals emitted from the slowdown in domestic investment; not only has manufacturing growth slowed from 16.3% in the previous quarter to 12.4%, essential supplies and construction outputs have also shrunk as compared to the previous quarter, while services growth in important sectors have not really picked up. More concerning is the fact that gross fixed capital formation has decelerated compared to the last 2 quarters at a time that it ought to be rising with a need for vast infrastructure spending both for physical and human resources development. Should inflation control measures delinked from monetary policy and targeted at select necessary commodities now be evaluated instead?
Visit our Website.
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