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A significant degree of uncertainty in the consistent of the fiscal development within EU countries has prompted governments to stop or decrease unfavourable developments and to look for solutions to ensure sufficient debt financing. In the context of debt financing, which is one of the major ways of financing the fiscal imbalance, are countries, as reported by OECD surveys, besides traditional debt instruments focusing also on the use of specific financial instruments - derivatives. The aim of the paper is to analyse the use of derivative instruments, namely interest rate and currency swaps, in the field of public debt management. Their purpose is to secure the countries´ financing ensuring the lowest possible costs by an acceptable degree of risk. The paper also points out the advantages and disadvantages that emerge from their use in the context of debt financing. The purpose of the paper is to use model examples and verify whether the use of derivative contracts in different situations would be a suitable instrument for the public sector, for the debt manager, to finance long-term fiscal imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the significant aspects of the interest rate, considering that it performs an important function in the banking system. Taking in the consideration that money represents the blood that supplies the system, the interest constitutes the way in which it develops. The interest rate is the main item in relation to which the interest is calculated. There are presented and analyzed the interest rates charged by the credit institutions at: term deposits in lei, term deposits in euros, deposits in lei on types of deposits, deposits in euro on types of deposits, credits in lei, euro-denominated loans, loans in lei on types of loans, loans in euros on the types of loans. The methods used by the authors of the paper consisted in the gathering of information, documentary analysis, graphical representation, classification, analysis. It is proved that the saving process has positive effects on the development of the bank's activity and is directly related to the increase of the attracted resources, their diversification, but also the improvement of the structure towards the increase of its resources. By pursuing their own interests, banks can orientate the development of activities, create new consumption and savings patterns at the level of society, all closely related to the function of mediating between those who have resources and those who need them in that moment. It is also demonstrated that the lending process is the main source of financing for a country's economy, credit types being various according to market requirements. Bank deposits are created by those who want to save money, and those who plan to access credit, think carefully ahead and do not borrow more than they think they can repay without problems. Concluding, by accessing a credit, the benefits must appear on both sides, both for the bank, through the expansion and diversification of the loan portfolio, additional profit, but also for the client through business development, profitability and repayment of debts to the bank, as a result of the credit obtained. Commercial banks should also provide depositors with higher interest rates for savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates internal and external determinants of business entities' capital structure in the Slovak Republic. We have focused not only on an influence of usually examined internal factors but also on very important external factors such as Gross Domestic Product, unemployment, inflation, interest rates and tax rate. The main source of panel data utilized in the paper is a national database of Slovak business entities, statistics of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic and Eurostat. The research is carried out by employing the linear regression model as the basic tool for econometrics. The result of the paper is a quantification of the determinants influence on capital structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gradual decrease of interest rates is noticed from the beginning of 2000 to the present. It caused that the risk-taking appetite of banks increased and banks have softened their lending standards. We examine the impact of interest rates on bank risk-taking and on the profitability of banks in this paper. The research is applied on four biggest banks in the Czech Republic and their sister companies operating in a country where the whole group of financial institutions is established. We compare the results and answer following questions. Do low interest rates increase risk-taking appetite of banks in Czech Republic equally as of their sister companies? How Czech banks faces to low interest rates in connection with profitability comparing to their sister companies? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims characterize the importance of inflation for monetary policy in the euro area and the U.S., to analyze the evolution of inflation in 1999-2012 and define potential risks, which could in the future affect its growth, In this paper we will compare inflation in the euro area and the USA from 1999 to the 2012, and we use correlation analysis to assess the relationship between inflation in the euro area and the USA with selected monetary indicators such as interest rates, exchange rates, monetary aggregates and the government deficit. All data used are freely available on the website of the European Central Bank and the central banks of the United States, where the statistical offices of the countries concerned. This paper describes forecasts of future inflation and risk mapping its future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As shown by researchers in the field of management, the goal of strategic management is to increase the competitiveness of various economic actors. At present, in connection with a significant increase in competition, the issues of increasing competitiveness are of paramount importance for economic agents of any kind. At the same time, the constant complication of economic conditions, increasing demands on the economic entities performance not only of economic, but also of social, environmental, etc. character, leads to the need to improve the concepts of management in general and competitiveness in particular. Thus, the authors posed the task of analyzing existing approaches to understanding competitiveness, identifying their inconsistency with the current requirements of society and suggesting a new direction for developing a concept of competitiveness. The analysis of works in this area showed that a multilevel approach to competitiveness is usually used. Competitiveness is investigated at macro, mezo, and micro levels. In accordance with this the objects of research are at the state, territory and firm levels. Further authors' research is devoted to the analysis of the essence of competitiveness at the firm level. The study showed that the authors of the works devoted to this issue adhere to one of two basic approaches to understanding competitiveness. In the first case, it is considered that competitiveness is expressed through productivity, etc. indicators. In the second case, it is assumed that competitiveness is expressed through sales figures, etc. The generalization of works on the definition of competitiveness allowed the formulation of general principles for determining competitiveness: the conditions for the existence of competitiveness (market competition), the way to determine competitiveness (comparison), the target benchmark of competitiveness (meeting market needs). Application of the developed principles allowed to identify shortcomings in existing concepts of competitiveness and to determine the direction of the authors' concept of competitiveness. The basic drawback of all existing approaches to understanding competitiveness is the use of economic selfishness (egoism) theory and economic growth theories as the foundation for constructing all subsequent conclusions. This is expressed in the primacy of the main target - the satisfaction of the needs of the consumer. The dominant position of this principle leads to a thoughtless build-up of the existing and the formation of unreasonable consumption in the present at the expense of deterioration of the natural and social environment, the exhaustion of resources, both material and human. The innovative approach of the authors' team is based on the transition from theories of economic selfishness and economic growth to the theory of sustainable growth as a conceptual basis for defining the competitiveness. The main principle of forming the competitiveness should be the satisfaction of the needs of a wide range of stakeholders, the interests of both present and future generations. In this paper, the authors propose an innovative concept for the formation of competitiveness of economic entities that meets the most pressing problems and challenges of the modern economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses a New Keynesian model of a small open economy, augmented with fiscal policy rules, to assess the interactions between monetary and fiscal policies for the Romanian economy. The model is estimated using Bayesian techniques. The estimation is done on quarterly data using samples for output, inflation, interest rate, government expenditure and government revenues, over the period of 2000q1-2013q3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently is very topical the issue of stability and liquidity of banks and banking sectors. In this paper we bring evaluation of the liquidity situation in the banking sector of the Slovak Republic and comparison of main tendencies with the Eurozone. It will focus in particular on whether the current structure of loans as the main generator of profit is appropriately according preferences banks to get the profit in future. Although liquidity is related to the assets and liabilities of banks, the article focuses on the subproblem, related to whether there is a sufficient space for the new and also profitable lending business of commercial banks. Therefore, we consider the potential profitability and structure of loans in the banking sector as the most important pillar of stability and ensure sufficient liquidity. Questions of the appropriateness of the credit structure will be analyzed on the basis of Markowitz modern portfolio theory and on the basis of the theoretical concept of net value of the bank. Markowitz modern portfolio theory takes into account income from loans and their mutual covariance, the theory of the net value of the bank takes into account in particular the anticipated changes in interest rates and loan maturities. We assume that where recommendations will be identical to the structure of the loan is a high probability that these recommendations are correct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research studies Eastern Europe’s attractiveness for private equity investors in terms of each of the seven main drivers identified by the following authors : Black and Gilson (1998), Gompers and Lerner (1998), Jeng and Wells (2000), Romain and de La Potteria (2004), Félix et al. (2007), Groh (2009), respectively Bernoth and Colavecchio (2014). We use aggregated data from Eastern European private equity market during 2000–2013 as well as macroeconomic data, to estimate a panel data model. The main seven drivers considered by the literature were: GDP growth, market capitalization, R&D expenditures, interest rates, unemployment rate, corruption and uncertainty. This paper also studies the dynamics of the main macroeconomic indicators for the following countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, the Baltic States, the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine and Hungary. The main conclusion is that the private equity funds are concerned by the country risk which is reflected by the level of the interest rate and they also look to the level of unemployment and to the level of uncertainty index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper we analyze the small open economy widely influenced by the foreign economy with bounded interest rates. We analyze the foreign interest rates pass through into a small open economy and impact of the Zero Lower Bound. To evaluate this impact in a real economy we used a dynamic stochastic model of general equilibrium of a small open economy estimated on Czech and European data series. The constraint on the foreign interest rates is modelled using new computational tool DynareOBC designed and created by Tom Holden. In the second part of our analysis we deal with the foreign capital flows that are implied by the interest rate differential. Czech National Bank uses a nominal exchange rate as an unconventional monetary policy instrument. Stable level of exchange rate may attract foreign investors and that generates pressure on appreciation of the FX rate and the central bank must intervene. This effect may be even stronger when some European central banks decided to decrease policy rates below zero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the level of sensitivity of the US stock market to nominal interest rates for the period 2003-2013 using quantile regression. The empirical results show that the stock market has a significant sensitivity to changes in interest rates and finds differences across sectors and over time. Moreover, the effect of changes in the interest rates tends to be more pronounced during extreme market conditions, thus distinguishing expansion periods from recession periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we proposed to present the macroeconomic context in which the structural funds are absorbed and used efficient from the perspective of monetary policy transmission channels and the influences generated by the way they reacted at the main monetary and economic variables to different shocks in Romania's economy, between 2002 and 2013. The analysis is based on the impacts of using technological systems and data generalization in the macroeconomic and monetary framework. Thus, we included variables that capture the evolution of gross domestic product, inflation, interest rate, unemployment, monetary and wage index which are the determinants of the capacity to absorb the structural funds and also the outcome indicators for use of these funds. The interest rate channel has gained consistency in recent years, which facilitates enhancing the absorption of structural funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic authorities (central bank and government), conducting the monetary and fiscal policy, affect the economy as well as each other. In pursuit of its goal, which is the desired level of inflation (the inflation target), the central bank applies appropriate monetary policy strategies with varying degrees of expansiveness/restrictiveness measured by the interest rate. In turn, the government striving to achieve the goal which is the desired economic growth also uses strategies with a different degree of expansiveness and restrictiveness measured by the level of the budget deficit in relation to GDP. The decisions of economic authorities regarding the expansiveness or restrictiveness of policies are also influenced by many factors that the central bank and the government have no influence on, such as financial crises, supply shocks and others. The purpose of the article is to show the importance of the monetary and fiscal policy options in the economies of the Czech Republic and Hungary. It also stressed the context of monetary and fiscal game in relation to the direction (restrictiveness or expansiveness) of both policies. The study covered the years 2001-2017. To achieve the article's objective the following research methods were used: presentation of statistical data and statistical research methods. As a result, it was noticed that the character of monetary and fiscal policy plays a significant role in the economies under study. The originality of the analysis carried out in this article is to emphasize the importance of proper conduct of monetary and fiscal policy and their significance in economic processes in the countries studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]