Central Banker Report Cards 2020: Whatever It Takes

GirlBye wrote:

Our 26th annual report grading the world’s central bankers considers their responses to the high-stress conditions wrought by the pandemic. 

Central bankers and other officials at the April IMF/World Bank virtual meetings.

Central bankers in both developed countries and emerging markets have deployed innovative strategies to keep economies and financial systems around the world functioning as normally as possible in these unprecedented times. The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to near zero, flooded the markets with liquidity and extended its bond buying into new areas as the extent of the crisis became clear. Most central banks did whatever it took to stabilize financial markets, including outright purchases of large amounts of risky securities in emerging markets.


“Since the onset of the pandemic, central banks have resorted to all kinds of measures—conventional and unconventional—to salvage their respective economies,” says Harvesh Kumar Seegolam, governor of the Bank of Mauritius. “Central banks are being looked up to as saviors in these testing times,” he adds in an official statement.
“The current crisis has ripped up the rule book,” says Liam Peach, an economist specializing in emerging Europe at Capital Economics. These bond purchases by emerging market central banks are aimed primarily at reducing credit spreads and stabilizing the financial system, rather than the true quantitative easing that  was done to influence monetary policy in developed markets, he wrote in a report.


There is a risk that large-scale bond purchases could be used over a prolonged period to help finance government deficits, particularly in Brazil, or in other countries where central banks are highly politicized, such as Poland and Romania, according to Peach. Many emerging market central banks have been successful, however, in restoring stability in local bond markets and even reversing early panic selling.


Many central banks relaxed reserve requirements and encouraged banks to lend, particularly to small and micro enterprises, which will play a critical role in spurring future economic growth. At the same time, a rising tide of nonperforming loans and ongoing economic uncertainties leave little room for complacency about the sustained health of the financial system.

PROFILES BY REGION

North America | Latin America | Europe | Asia-Pacific | Middle East & Africa

IRAQ
Mustapha Ghaleb | GRADE: TOO EARLY TO SAY

In a government shake-up in mid-September, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi appointed Mustafa Ghaleb as governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, replacing Ali Mohsen Ismail al-Alaq, who led the central bank since September 2014. Al-Kadhimi, who was selected as prime minister in May, reshuffled important economic posts amid widespread protests in Iraq, which relies on oil to fund 97% of the state budget.

The new governor, who was the director of legal affairs at the central bank, met with Judge Faiq Zaidan, president of the Supreme Judicial Council, and in his first press conference since assuming office announced a plan to strengthen the Iraqi dinar and fight money laundering and terrorist financing. He also emphasized the importance of preserving the independence of the central bank. Economic reforms and an end to corruption have been the leading demands ​of protesters.



Read more at:https://www.gfmag.com/magazine/october-2020/central-banker-report-cards#middleeastafrica