By David Barwick – Frankfurt (Econostream) – Finland remains disinclined to issue green bonds anytime soon, according to Teppo Koivisto, director of the Finance Division of Finland’s State Treasury and thus responsible for Finnish public debt management.
7 February 2022
By David Barwick – Frankfurt (Econostream) – The absence of 7-year issuance from Germany’s 2022 funding programme is part of a first step that will in principle eventually lead to the absence of 15-year issuance as well, according to Tammo Diemer, member of the Executive Board of Germany’s Finance Agency.
4 February 2022
Q: What do you make of the fact that benchmark German borrowing costs appear poised to enter positive territory sustainably? How does this influence your approach, in particular against the backdrop of recent comments by a colleague of yours that issuing ultra-long debt may be more challenging as interest rates rise?
4 February 2022
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde’s performance at the press conference on Thursday suggested that she is finally taking her Governing Council colleagues’ inflation fears with the commensurate degree of seriousness and that she regards the situation as having changed in a way that could conceivably lead to a policy move as soon as March.
3 February 2022
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Judging by the effort European Central Bank Governing Council members have put into hammering home their views since their last gathering, one might think that the meeting this week stood to yield a particularly significant outcome following a heated debate. While the discussion will probably be spirited, expectations of major results are likely to be dashed.
1 February 2022
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The account of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting of 15-16 December, released by the ECB on Thursday, suggested that reasonably widely held views of the inflation outlook expressed at the gathering got relatively little airtime at the subsequent press conference by President Christine Lagarde - or since.
20 January 2022
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Do central bankers anticipate economic developments well enough to remain perpetually one step ahead of financial markets and shape monetary policy proactively, or does the lack of any special foreknowledge mean that in fact they essentially go with the flow?
18 January 2022
By David Barwick – Frankfurt (Econostream) – The green bond issuance announced last month by Denmark has generated high interest and should have no problem attracting the maximum possible volume this year of DKK15 billion, according to Martin Wagner Toftdahl, Head of Monetary Policy Operations and Government Debt at Danmarks Nationalbank.
18 January 2022
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Lest anyone had doubted, newly minted European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel made clear at his very first opportunity that the German Bundesbank would continue its tradition of standing up for stable prices and against policy activism.
11 January 2022
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – For anyone interested in how the energy transition might ultimately play out in terms of inflation, European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel provided the clearest theoretical answer to date.
10 January 2022
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Following is the full transcript of the interview conducted by Econostream on 09 December with Agence France Trésor Chief Executive Cyril Rousseau:
20 December 2021
By David Barwick – Frankfurt (Econostream) – Agence France Trésor (AFT), France’s sovereign debt issuer, is satisfied that even in the event of high volatility associated with the upcoming French election, it will be able to fulfil its mandate to finance the state without difficulty, according to AFT Chief Executive Cyril Rousseau.
20 December 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Thursday managed to deliver a set of decisions that preserved a high degree of optionality and flexibility and showed growing open-mindedness at the ECB about what would follow currently elevated uncertainty.
16 December 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Members of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council periodically emphasise their resolve to tighten monetary policy whenever the situation warrants it and without regard for the fiscal interests of euro area sovereigns, but all things considered it would be an optimistic observer who took such assurances at face value.
15 December 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Seven weeks ago, we noted in this space that the Governing Council meeting of the European Central Bank that was then two days off had been preceded by an unusually thin trickle of communication, at least from the Executive Board. Now, the opposite is more the case, with seemingly every member of the Council having weighed in, in many cases more than once, about coming decisions or the possibility of deferring these.
14 December 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Tuesday’s Financial Times story suggesting a growing concern among European Central Bank policymakers about being too hasty to extend accommodation is less revelation than reminder.
7 December 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The imminent departure of European Central Bank Governing Council member and arch-hawk Jens Weidmann represents a loss in terms of the quality of Council discussions, some ECB insiders fear, but does not imply a change in outcomes.
6 December 2021
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Friday indicated that the Governing Council could play it safe at its upcoming policy meeting by avoiding unnecessarily bold decisions, while pressing it to avoid playing it too safe.
3 December 2021