Since beginning economic transition, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia have—with much success—employed diverse exchange rate regimes. As these countries approach EU accession, they will need to avoid the perils of too much or too little exchange rate variability when...

This paper draws on the experience of emerging Europe and argues that foreign capital is an enviable development opportunity with tail risks. Financial integration and foreign savings supported growth in the EU12 and EU candidate countries. We argue that this was possible because of EU...

This paper focuses on roots of strain in the European Monetary Union (EMU). It argues that there is need for a thorough reform of the governance structure of the Union in conjunction with radical changes in the regulation and supervision of financial markets. Financial intermediation has gone...

The central objective of this report is to identify the best forms of enhanced economic integration that could be pursued over the next 5-10 years between the EU and five of its important neighbour countries: Ukraine, Russia, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria. The report starts from reviewing existing...

This paper aims to devise a monetary policy instrument rule that is suitable for open economies undergoing monetary convergence to a common currency area. The open-economy convergence-consistent Taylor rule is forward-looking, consistent with monetary framework based on inflation targeting,...

Unlike the crisis years of 2007-2009 (when the insolvency of large banks was a major problem), the current round of the global financial crisis has fiscal origins. Almost all developed countries suffer from an excessive public debt burden that has been built up over the last two decades or more....

Emerging market economies were major beneficiaries of the economic boom before 2007. More recently, they have become victims of the global financial crisis. Their future development depends, to a large extent, on global economic prospects. Today the global economy and the European economy are...

This 2008 Article IV Consultation highlights that Ghana’s growth has remained strong, fuelled by both the private and public sectors. The Ghanaian economy maintained strong growth of about 6½ percent in 2007 and the first months of 2008. The private sector has responded positively to...

This paper discusses key findings of the Third Review under the Stand-By Arrangement for Georgia. With monetary policy impaired by high dollarization, the authorities’ response to the downturn relies mostly on fiscal stimulus. The reduction of policy interest rates and ample liquidity...

This paper discusses key findings of the Second Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for Armenia. The authorities met all quantitative performance criteria for end-June and end-September, with the exception of the end-September fiscal balance. All structural benchmarks for end-June and...