DUBAI / Reuters Sharp swings in global financial markets in the past few days are not worrying since economic growth is strong but reforms are still needed to avert future crises, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund said on Sunday. Christine Lagarde, speaking at a conference on global business and social trends in Dubai, said economies were also …

Bloomberg The European Central Bank has woken up to the risks digital currencies can pose to policy makers’ bread-and-butter business: the economy. “If you increasingly have bridges between the virtual world and the real world and then there is a collapse in this virtual world, it could drain liquidity from the real world,” Executive Board member Yves Mersch said in …

Bloomberg The Bank of Russia is refocussing its sights on trying to support economic growth after inflation settled at the lowest level in the country’s modern history and geopolitical risks receded. While central banks tend to eschew efforts to look beyond their mandate, policy makers in Moscow appear willing to take on the challenge of economic growth head on. The …