We revisit the question of the quantitative benefits of WTO trade agreements in a setup that is non-standard from the traditional trade policy point of view. We show that in a New Keynesian model, unilateral trade liberalization reduces welfare due to terms-of-trade deterioration, creating an...

Over the past decade policy makers in Latin America have adopted a number of macroprudential instruments to manage the procyclicality of bank credit dynamics to the private sector and contain systemic risk. Reserve requirements, in particular, have been actively employed. Despite their...

Although Sweden has recovered from the financial crisis, authorities have already initiated exit measures from crisis response policies. The Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) Update undertook a financial stability analysis of the banking sector, including a comprehensive stress-testing...

In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country.

This Technical Note discusses key results of stress testing of the banking sector in Austria. The Austrian banking system is in a recovery phase following the 2008–2009 global financial crisis. Stress testing results suggest that Austrian banks, on aggregate, have sufficient capital...

This paper presents Detailed Assessment of the United States’s observance of Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision. The U.S. financial system is large and highly diversified. At the end-2007, total U.S. financial assets amounted to almost four and a half times the size...

Owing to the high dependence of its exports on countries and commodities, Finland experienced the worst recession in the euro area. Executive Directors encouraged authorities to focus on improving bank cost efficiency, preventing excessive risk taking, and limiting liquidity and funding risks....