Read more about the article Central Bank Digital Currencies in Africa

Central Bank Digital Currencies in Africa

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are digital versions of cash issued and regulated by central banks. They correspond to digital money denominated in the national unit of account and liability of the central bank. By mid-2022, almost 100 CBDCs were being subject to research or testing. Two had already been launched, one of them in Nigeria (eNaira) and the other in the Bahamas. According to a survey by the BIS (Bank for International Settlements) last year, 90% of central banks there approached were undertaking CBDC analysis or projects in the previous year, with 26% already implementing pilot projects (Kosse and Mattei, 2022). Potential benefits from CBDCs include the facilitation of financial inclusion, more resilient domestic payments, and enhanced competition. Beyond improving access to money, payment efficiency and lower transaction costs may be attained. On the other hand, some risks and challenges will have to be faced. As we approach in this chapter, African central banks are part of such a global trend. Most are yet in the beginning (research and analysis), while Nigeria has already issued a retail CBDC, and South Africa and Ghana are implementing pilot projects (wholesale and retail, respectively). Without CBDCs can enhance the public good nature of the monetary system, with the central bank at the core of safe, low-cost, and inclusive payments. Some broad risks and challenges are also highlighted. First, we summarize how a monetary system can be strengthened with digital finance and new private forms of digital money if not being based on cryptocurrencies. Second, we approach the motivations of African central banks for CBDCs. Finally, we call attention to some of the challenges and risks accompanying such a move to CBDCs.

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Read more about the article Rising Use of Local Currencies in Cross-Border Payments

Rising Use of Local Currencies in Cross-Border Payments

Pairs of countries have agreed to settle commercial and financial transactions with each other in their local currencies, usually facilitated through bilateral agreements between their central banks. China has been able to use its currency to settle half of its foreign trade and investment transactions. The growing use of local currencies in external payments will be part of what we have already called a “slow and bounded de-dollarization”. A partial fragmentation of the global payments system is underway.

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Read more about the article Macroeconomic Policy Regime Change in Advanced Economies

Macroeconomic Policy Regime Change in Advanced Economies

Three significant changes to the macroeconomic policy regime in advanced economies, compared to the post-global financial crisis period, have unfolded in the last two years. First, fears of a chronic insufficiency of aggregate demand as a growth deterrent prevailing after the 2008 global financial crisis, have been superseded by supply-side shocks and inflation. Second, as a result of the first change, the era of abundant and cheap liquidity provided by central banks has given way to higher interest rates and liquidity squeezes. Finally, because of the previous changes, there was a strong devaluation of financial assets in 2022. There are now fears about multiple possibilities of financial shocks ahead.

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Read more about the article Tightening Financial Conditions Have Affected Asset Values

Tightening Financial Conditions Have Affected Asset Values

Even knowing that there is a time lag between interest rate decisions and their effects, the Fed will not be able to ignore what happens to monthly inflation rates during the crossing until next year. Even if that poses a risk to a soft landing of the economy. What seems more likely, however, appears to be the combination of a global economic slowdown and continued tightening of global financial conditions. With equity markets in advanced economies still exhibiting downward slides until the monetary-financial grip stops.

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Read more about the article Bloated Central Bank Balance Sheets

Bloated Central Bank Balance Sheets

There are good reasons to believe that there will be no return to the pre-QE configuration of balance sheets. First, the increasing global financial integration in the last few decades has imposed increasing challenges in terms of making liquidity management effective as cross-border volumes of capital flows have expanded significantly. Second, changes to financial regulation have induced private agents to alter their behavior and strategies. Finally, a new task has come under the purview of central banks: monitoring relationships between various benchmark curves—i.e., operating as quasi-market makers. As a spill-over from abroad, central bank balance sheets in some emerging market economies also bloated. The era of bloated central bank balance sheets seems to be a component of the “new normal”, even if they undergo some diet in the future.

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Read more about the article Secular Stagnation and the Big Balance Sheet Economy

Secular Stagnation and the Big Balance Sheet Economy

Private balance sheets have risen relative to GDP in advanced economies in the last decades, in tandem with a trend of decline in long-term real interest rates. Asset-driven macroeconomic cycles, along with a structural trend of rising influence of finance on income growth and distribution, have become part of the landscape. Underlying secular trends of stagnation may also be suggested, making the macroeconomic dynamics dependent on the balance sheet economy getting bigger and bigger.

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Read more about the article Benefits and Costs of Islamic Finance

Benefits and Costs of Islamic Finance

A certain parallel can be made with ESG investments with a performance below non-ESG portfolios that is more than compensated, from the standpoint of investors’ preferences, by ensuring adherence to certain principles as a value in itself. Sharia compliance may well be deemed as a benefit greater than any economic opportunity cost for those who favor its use.

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Read more about the article ECON+ The changing face of international finance by Otaviano Canuto

ECON+ The changing face of international finance by Otaviano Canuto

  https://www.mixcloud.com/EconPlus/econ-interview-with-otaviano-canuto-trends-in-financial-globalisation/   In our latest podcast with Otaviano Canuto, ECON+ discusses the changing face of international finance. Looking at the more detailed picture, we see that trends may not…

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Read more about the article The Metamorphosis of Financial Globalisation

The Metamorphosis of Financial Globalisation

After a strong rising tide starting in the 1990s, financial globalisation seems to have reached a plateau since the global financial crisis. However, that apparent stability has taken place along a deep reshaping of cross-border financial flows, featuring de-banking and an increasing weight of non-banking financial cross-border transactions. Sources of potential instability and long-term funding challenges have morphed accordingly

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