Czech premier attacks the central bank’s hike. The Czech National Bank raised its two week repo rate by 25 basis points to 4.00 percent on November 5, its second increase this year, on a close 4 to 3 vote, with Governor Ales Michl calling the move fine tuning rather than the start of a tightening cycle and citing insurance against energy driven inflation, with October inflation at 2.4 percent against a 2 percent target. Bloomberg reported on Saturday that Prime Minister Andrej Babis blasted the increase as scandalous. That characterisation is single sourced to Bloomberg at write time and is carried here attributed; Babis has publicly criticised the bank’s hikes before, including in June, and the bank has defended its independence.
Paraguay’s Ueno Bank depositors start getting money back. The Central Bank of Paraguay, which placed Ueno Bank into resolution on November 2 after its solvency ratio fell below half the legal minimum, began guarantee payments on November 5. Emergency legislation authorises advance payments of up to 40 monthly minimum wages, 121,760,000 guaranies, per eligible depositor, against a full statutory guarantee of 75 minimum wages, 228,300,000 guaranies. Depositors are paid by transfer to an account at another institution, assigned through the central bank’s payment page, with the first transfers running from the afternoon of November 6 to about 1.6 million depositors who already hold an account elsewhere. Prosecutors have charged 27 people in connection with the bank. The collapse has already cost President Santiago Pena his office; this site’s politics coverage carries that story in full.
Bank of Canada deliberations due November 10. The Bank of Canada will publish the summary of deliberations of its October 28 meeting on November 10. The bank held its policy rate at 2.50 percent at that meeting, renewed its 2 percent inflation target framework with the government on November 5, and now faces an October labour report showing employment little changed, down 4,700, with unemployment up to 6.7 percent, covered in full on this site today.
Treasury buyback settlement closed. The Treasury’s November 5 Liquidity Support buyback in the 1 month to 2 year bucket, $4 billion accepted of $47.319 billion offered, settled on November 6. The results were published and updated in place on this site on November 6; there is no new buyback story today.