This 2014 Article IV Consultation highlights that the economic expansion in New Zealand is becoming increasingly embedded and broad based, with growth exceeding 3 percent in the second half of 2013. The drivers include supportive financial conditions, record high export commodity prices,...

New Zealand’s economy continued to grow at a moderate rate, in part reflecting the effects of the recent drought and inflation. The macroeconomic policy has been framed to absorb adverse shocks with flexible exchange rates to serve as buffer. The planned pace of deficit reduction is...

This paper studies the dynamics of net foreign liabilities across a number of countries. Our historical analysis suggests that an orderly reduction in a country’s net foreign liabilities has mostly occurred when there was significant improvement in gross public savings through deliberate...

The paper finds that, given New Zealand’s conservative approach in implementing the Basel II framework, New Zealand banks’ headline capital ratios underestimate their capital strength. A comparison with Canadian, UK and Australian banks highlights the impact of New Zealand’s...

Uruguay has consolidated economic gains, supported by strong macroeconomic policies and a broadly favorable external environment. Growth has exceeded expectations, unemployment has reached record lows, and poverty has continued to fall, while economic vulnerabilities have been significantly...

The recent global financial crisis has exposed the limitations of a conventional inflation targeting framework in insulating an economy from all shocks, and demonstrated that its rigid application may aggravate the effect of shocks on output and inflation. Possible refinements to the inflation...

Sound policies and favorable external conditions have led to a strong economic recovery, but important challenges lie ahead. Uruguay’s near-term economic prospects are generally favorable. The main short-term challenge is rising inflation in the wake of vigorous growth and capital...

This paper presents the staff report for Peru’s 2008 Article IV Consultation, Fourth Review and Inflation Consultation under the Stand-By Arrangement and request for waiver of applicability of performance criteria. Peru has been liberalizing external trade through tariff reductions in...

The staff report for the 2006 Article IV Consultation on Botswana highlights economic developments and monetary and exchange rate policy. Botswana’s growth has been fueled by continued increases in diamond production; and real diamond output is projected to level off, and then decline...