Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has been appointed by the G20 leaders to chair the Financial Stability Board. Carney will continue to serve as Bank of Canada governor. Carney spent 13 years as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs, working in London, New York, Tokyo and Toronto and is considered well-positioned to oversee the industry.
Carney’s main challenge will be to identify potential risky actions by the world’s largest financial institutions to prevent a repeat of the actions that lead to the global economic meltdown in 2008. Carney has a reputation for being direct and forth-right – a trait he has displayed on more than one occasion since being named Chairman last year to a committee on financial stability at the Bank for International Settlements, of which the FSB is a part.
“If some institutions feel pressure today,” Carney told an audience at the Institute of International Finance in Washington, “it is because they have done too little for too long, rather than because they are being asked to do too much, too soon.”
Japanese industrial production rose for the first time in six months in November, largely thanks to government assistance programmes.
Factory output was 1% up on October, with much of the lift coming from an increase in car production.
That has been underpinned by an official programme providing incentives to buyers of hybrid cars, such as Toyota’s Prius.
Output of various electronics and machinery parts also lifted production.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which released the figures, said it expected factory production to continue rising – by 3.4% in December and 3.7% in January.
BBC News
Statistics Canada reported today that the Canadian economy grew by 0.1 percent in May. A jump in the cost of oil and gas was mostly responsible for the increase. Most other areas of the economy were flat, or actually lost ground, including construction which fell 1.6 percent, while the services industry declined 0.1 percent.
Sales of existing homes fell significantly in several parts of the country in May, resulting in an 11.3 per cent decrease in the output of real estate agents and brokers. It was the fifth consecutive monthly decline in this industry.
Source: The Canadian Press
In an interview with China Reform magazine, Yi Gang, China’s chief currency regulator, said that China has surpassed Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy. Gang also noted that depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is set to overtake the US economy around 2025.
Source: Reuters
Britain needs a safer and more robust banking system, central bankers said on Tuesday, saying U.S. President Barack Obama’s plans for a drastic bank sector overhaul were part of a much needed debate on how to fix the industry.
Obama’s proposals, which sent a ripple through financial markets last week, showed that radical reform was on the table, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said in testimony to lawmakers, and a range of different policy instruments was required.
“We do need a safer and more robust system … that may turn out to be smaller,” King said. “The objective is to create a financial sector that provides the services that the non-financial sector needs.”
Source: Reuters
