Central Bank Audit Practices describes common approaches, practices and trends relevant to the audit of central banks, with a view to supporting public administration reform efforts in central and eastern European countries. The study provides a basis for further discussion between...

The current monetary policy framework in several Latin American countries, combining inflation targeting and a floating exchange-rate regime, has contributed to disinflation by anchoring expectations around low, stable levels. This paper uses co-integration analysis to estimate simultaneously a...

Europe's single currency was launched a bit more than a year ago for eleven of the fifteen countries of the Union. This study assesses economic developments and policies during the inaugural year of the new regime. It analyses the economic performance and prospects of the euro area as a whole,...

Money's destiny is to become digital. Throughout the ages physical money in the form of objects, coins and notes has increasingly been replaced by more abstract means of payment such as bills of exchange, cheques and credit cards. In the years to come that trend to virtual money will continue...

Functioning states are essential for reducing poverty, sustaining peace and achieving agreed development goals. Despite receiving growing international attention in recent years, fragile states are falling behind other low-income countries in human development. Fragility – and its negative...

The launch of the euro reinforces the foundations for unprecedented economic integration encompassing 11 countries, 16 per cent of world GDP and 290 million people. For the first time, the OECD has studied the euro-area as a fully-fledged economic entity and has analysed the intensive...

House prices have been moving up strongly in real terms since the mid-1990s in the majority of OECD countries, with the ongoing upswing the longest of its kind in the OECD area since the 1970s. If interest rates were to rise significantly, real house prices may be at risk of nearing a peak. The...