This paper examines the extent of international financial integration, and its consequences for the current account. The evidence indicates that financial liberalization in the 1970s and 1980s has resulted in a substantial movement towards closer integration of world capital markets. By reducing...

This paper shows how growth and demography, two important determinants of the savings rate in the life-cycle approach, explain a large part of the diversity in savings behavior in Asia across eight countries as well as over time. Inflation and adverse movements in the terms of trade are found to...

Despite Mexico’s recent remarkable progress in adjusting its fiscal and external accounts and in restructuring its economy, the recovery of growth has remained elusive. This paper reviews some aspects of Mexico’s recent performance and suggests that systemic adjustment uncertainty, and...

This paper extends recent work by Feldstein and Horioka (1980) and Bayoumi (1990), and examines saving-investment correlations for industrial countries in the post-war period. The focus of the enquiry is on differences observed between EMS and non-EMS countries. It is seen that the EMS countries...

This paper reviews the literature on factors which affect saving and capital formation in industrialized countries. Problems of measurement are briefly examined. Evidence of the effect on the rate of saving of real rates of return, income redistribution, allocation of saving between corporations...

This paper analyzes reasons for the high post-war correlations of saving and investment, both across countries and over time. It is concluded that the main reason for the observed high correlations over the recent period is probably government policy

The main findings are as follows: (1) an increase in private national saving during 2001-03 was the key contributor to the turnaround in Pakistan''s external current account during this period; (2) while Pakistan''s growth was mainly export-led before 2003-04, it was largely led by domestic...

The small states of the Asia and Pacific region face unique challenges in raising their growth potential and living standards. These countries are particularly vulnerable because of their small populations, geographical isolation and dispersion, narrow export and production bases, lack of...

Since 1978 the Chinese economy has grown on average more than 9 percenta year. Per capita income has nearly quadrupled in the past 15 years andsome analysts predict that within 20 years the Chinese economy will belarger than that of the United States. This pamphlet analyzes the reasonsfor the...

This Selected Issues paper on the Kingdom of Lesotho reviews the broad objectives and key institutional features of the Common Monetary Area (CMA) relating to currency arrangements. The CMA Agreement provides for the three small member countries to have access to South African capital and money...