Paul Fisher: The economic outlook – some remarks on monetary policy Speech by Mr Paul Fisher, Executive Director for Markets of the Bank of England, to the Agency for Scotland, London, 23 May 2011. *  *  *  I would like to thank Ronnie Driver for his help in preparing this speech. For most of us, the current outlook for the UK economy is not a very attractive prospect. After experiencing a precipitous fall in demand during 2008/09, the latest estimates suggest that UK output in 2011 Q1 remained around 4% below its peak pre-crisis level. The Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) central projection published in its May Inflation Report, is for output to grow at around its historical trend rate (Chart 1), such that it would be mid-2012 before that previous peak level is regained (Chart 2). At the same time annual CPI inflation, far from being subdued by the recession, has picked up to 4½%. In the short-term it is likely to go higher still before, we expect, falling back towards the 2% target (Chart 3). All this poses a significant challenge for policy makers, not least because of the genuine hardships slow growth and high inflation cause for businesses and households up and down the country.
Peter Pang: Hong Kong’s retail bond issues Opening remarks by Mr Peter Pang, Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, at the signing ceremony for the retail bond issue under HKMC’s retail bond issuance programme, Hong Kong, 18 July 2005. *  *  *  Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, On behalf of the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation, I welcome you all to this signing ceremony for the retail bond to be offered to the public tomorrow. I am pleased to note that since the introduction of the current offering mechanism through placing banks in October 2001, HKMC retail bonds have been warmly welcomed by retail investors. So far, we have issued seven retail bonds for a total amount of $ billion. The success of the Mortgage Corporation’s debt issues has been attributed to its high credit ratings (which are the same as those of the Hong Kong SAR Government) and to the wide range of notes, which can meet the different investment needs of retail investors. The upcoming issue has both Hong Kong Dollar and US Dollar denominated notes. This is the first time that the HKMC issues US Dollar notes. Apart from diversifying its funding sources, the HKMC’s issuance of USD retail bonds also serves to provide an additional investment channel for retail investors in Hong Kong. The minimum subscription amount for our USD bonds is only $ setting a reasonable threshold to make our debt accessible to a large segment of retail investors.