While the external debt of the least developed countries (LLDCs) is no threat to the international financial system, its adverse impact on the development efforts of many of these countries is severe. The following article examines their debt and economic situation and reviews major elements of...

The paper reviews key macroeconomic challenges with EU accession in Southeastern Europe (SEE). Most of the countries in the region are years away from EU accession and need substantial progress to meet the key macroeconomic criteria-the establishment of a functioning market economy and...

Given the tendency of the oil sector to appreciate the equilibrium real exchange rate (RER) in Algeria, trade liberalization with its depreciating impact on the RER is important for diversification of exports. This paper shows that reduction in trade protection would depreciate the RER in...

Analysis on macroeconomic determinants of protection in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, and Poland, while subject to many caveats, suggests that appreciation of the real exchange rate was the main macroeconomic determinant of trade policy reversals in the 1990s. This suggests that...