Central Banks of BRIC and Mexico (web-sites overview)
IntroductionThis paper is a review of five web sites of the central banks of four BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and Mexico. As the importance of emerging markets in the world economy is strengthening, investors, analysts and other users will require a wide range of information and data to include in researches, as well as in the process of investment decision-making. All sites will be analyzed in terms of design, overall representation of information, instruments available for investors to use financial information, statistics and other data. Only English versions of all sites are assessed. Each site will be graded maximum 3 points for design, 5 points for information available, and 7 points for data and tools. Maximum total grade is 15.Banco Central do Brazil (bcb.gov.br)The main page of the English version of this site provides a user with the latest news on the Brazilian financial system, as well as with the quick access to the latest reports, which seems to be very convenient for investors and analysts. The main page also provides brief live data on exchange and interest rates, but this is not in English and, therefore, not quite useful. Banco Central do
Brazil has a page for legislation and norms, but it is not quite detailed and sometimes not fully translated in English. The site also provides visitors with the information and statistical data on Brazilian economy, financial and banking systems (interest and exchange rates, money supply, etc.). All data can be downloaded as Excel sheets, and, therefore, can be easily used in any type of economical-statistical analysis.Grades: design — 2, information — 3, data and tools — 5. Total: 10.Central Bank of Russia (cbr.ru)Though this site has a very simple and straightforward design, it is overloaded with the information. It is ...
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Brazil has a page for legislation and norms, but it is not quite detailed and sometimes not fully translated in English. The site also provides visitors with the information and statistical data on Brazilian economy, financial and banking systems (interest and exchange rates, money supply, etc.). All data can be downloaded as Excel sheets, and, therefore, can be easily used in any type of economical-statistical analysis.Grades: design — 2, information — 3, data and tools — 5. Total: 10.Central Bank of Russia (cbr.ru)Though this site has a very simple and straightforward design, it is overloaded with the information. It is not easy to figure out where should you click to reach information you need. What is important from the investor’s point of view is that the site provides the whole range of information on the Russian banking legislation and monetary policy in English. Statistical information on the Russian economy (such as money supply, interest rates, exchange rates, etc.) and Russian banking system (such as liquidity position, etc.) can be obtained through this site. All the statistical data is presented in the format of HTML or PDF pages and tables and can’t be exported to Excel (or similar software) automatically. That hampers use of this data in research and analysis. Grades: design — 1, information — 4, data and tools — 4. Total: 9. Reserve Bank of India (rbi.org.in)As other sites, the site of Reserve Bank of India has a simplified design, emphasizing content rather than decorations. Unlike the previous sites, this one is very well structured. The index page doesn’t contain much of information, though latter can be easily accessed through other pages. All important documents and reports on Indian economy and financial system, as well as statistical data are presented in a very practical way. Depending on the purposes and time period of investor’s analysis or research, one can sort out and choose information published on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual basis. Each report can be downloaded as a PDF; statistical data and time series are represented in Excel sheets, which is quite useful. Grades: design — 2, information — 4, data and tools — 5. Total: 11.The People’s Bank of China (pbc.gov.cn)This site has a pleasant design. Though the English version of this site appears to be good, it still misses a lot of information from the original version in the Chinese language. Information on country’s monetary policy is still detailed and presented in the form of PDF reports. What is interesting about this site is that it contains texts of speeches of Bank’s and other Chinese authorities on different macro-economical issues and a special page with the list of former governors, but the practical meaning of this load of documents is doubtful. Central bank’s site has at its disposal the whole range of macro-economical data, such as historical exchange rates, reserves, money supply, stock and bond trading, etc, as well as some social-demographical data. Nevertheless, this data is monthly and appears in the site as HTML pages and can’t be automatically exported to Excel and other statistical software.Grades: design — 3, information — 3, data and tools — 4. Total: 10.Banco de Mexico (banxico.org.mx)Willing to put in the main page of the site the maximum amount of information, creators of this site made it hard to read the tiny letters. The index page provides quick access to key indicators of stock and exchange markets, inflation rates and graphical representation of this data. This site contains basic information on regulations of financial market of the country, legislation on the banking sector and some other reports. Banco de Mexico site has a rather powerful statistics page. Different financial data (monetary policy, financial markets, labour market, inflation, etc.) can be displayed in tables and graphs with easily adjustable time periods and scales. All customized graphs and tables can be immediately exported to Excel or saved as JPG files. Statistics page should be considered as the most valuable piece of information from the entire site. Besides, the site has some very simple and basic, yet useful tools, such as inflation rate or exchange rate calculators.Grades: design — 1, information — 4, data and tools — 7. Total: 12.ConclusionAll reviewed sites have minimalistic designs and concentrate on the content. Normally, all sites provide information on monetary policy, most important macro-economical indicators and key banking indicators. Reviewed sites also contain some information on legislation of the countries’ banking sectors. Though all of the sites have pages for statistics, the most useful from the investor or researcher’s point of view are the sites of Indian, Brazilian and Mexican central banks. Nowadays, investors and researches have to analyze huge amounts of information that is why the availability and usability of this information is crucial. The best site in terms of grade system introduced in this review has the central bank of Mexico.
