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and Turkey versus Germany over the period January 1999 to May 2013. We investigate the real exchange rate by using a Dickey-Fuller test. Thereafter, we investigate the real exchange rate by allowing for a trend with the origin in the Balassa-Samuelson effect. We also investigate the same pairs using the Engle-Granger cointegration test. However, for the Engle-Granger cointegration test, four of the pairs are excluded as the nominal exchange rate and the price differential are not integrated by the same order. We have investigated the half-life of each pair in each of the three approaches. We find ambiguous results both regarding relative PPP and the speed of adjustment towards the PPP equilibrium. We use the results to investigate whether the Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, FYR Macedonian, Romanian and Turkish economies are synchronized with the German economy and if they are ready to enter the European Monetary Union.

We investigate pricing and activity in the norwegian unsecured overnight interbank market in response to a shift in the central bank's liquidity policy. In october 2011, to encourage interbank trading, banks were allotted quotas for their overnight deposits with remuneration at the key policy rate while that on overnight deposits beyond allotted quotas was set one percentage point lower. In addition, a target range for banks' total overnight deposits was introduced and supported by open market operations to counteract not only temporary liquidity shortfalls, but also surpluses. We document substantially higher interbank trading, lower interbank interest rates relative to the policy rate as well as lower interest rate volatility following the policy shift. Notably, while overnight interbank interest rates were generally above the key policy rate before the policy shift, they have been close to but generally below the key policy rate afterwards.