This study takes stock of the institutional reform of monetary policy in Latin America since the early 1990s. It argues that strengthening the legal independence of central banks, together with macroeconomic policies, was instrumental in reducing inflation from three-digit annual rates in the...

The five Regional Economic Outlooks published biannually by the IMF cover Asia and Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. In each volume, recent economic developments and prospects for the region are discussed as a whole, as well as for...

The past year has been one of strong economic performance for the Western Hemisphere, notwithstanding somewhat slower growth in the United States in recent quarters. Can this performance be sustained, and what challenges does the region face? Reviewing macroeconomic prospects and risks, this...

The parameters of a conventional model of Japan’s current account were found to be stable in the period of the steeply rising yen between the fourth quarter of 1985 and the end of 1987. This suggests that Japan’s current account has been adjusting to the strengthening yen in accordance with...

In this paper a general equilibrium intertemporal model with optimizing consumers and producers is developed to analyze how the imposition of a temporary import tariff affects the path of real exchange rates and the current account. The model is completely real, and considers a small open...

The 2006 Article IV Consultation on the Republic of Uzbekistan highlights the economic outlook and policy challenges. The banking system’s ability to fulfill its intermediary role has been constrained by limited credit expansion, given the strong growth in net foreign assets and the need...

This paper focuses on the role of debt maturity in managing the government’s incentives to use opportunistic inflation to reduce the ex post real value of its nominal liabilities. The maturity structure of government debt is shown to be a powerful instrument to affect the time profile of the...

Comparing the 1978-82 Uruguayan stabilization with the 1990-94 Mexican experience reveals that exchange rate based stabilization tends to increase the economy’s vulnerability to unexpected shocks. An exchange rate rule, with full capital mobility, can only succeed if compatible financial...

While inflation slowed sharply in Mexico during 1988, imports surged. Although the growth of domestic absorption could be attributed to a higher fiscal deficit, deriving from sharply higher domestic interest rates, this paper argues that the recovery of private investment was the main driving...

We show that the presence of nominal non-indexed government debt could give rise to more than one equilibrium inflation rate. Conditions for this to occur are discussed in terms of ad hoc and micro-founded models. Solutions to the indeterminacy problem are examined; one solution is shown to be...