Prior to the Asian financial crisis, most Asian exchange rates were de facto pegged to the US Dollar. In the crisis, many economies experienced a brief period of extreme flexibility. A `fear of floating' gave reduced flexibility when the crisis subsided, but flexibility after the crisis was...

This policy review is set in the context of a highly uncertain global environment and a delicately poised domestic balance between growth and inflation. It should be read and understood together with the detailed review in Macroeconomic and Monetary Developments released yesterday by the Reserve...

One of the burning issues at the moment relates to increasing the “voice†or representation of emerging-market economies in international financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. There are many issues and challenges facing the monetary policy in emerging markets. In the...

This paper reports the European experience with a basket currency, the ECU. The ECU was initially introduced as a reference unit and later became the anchor of the European Monetary System. Public policy was complemented by private sector initiatives and use of the ECU for denomination of...

This Policy Brief discusses the proposed amendments to Republic Act No. 7653 (RA 7653). The first part briefly presents the mandate of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). It then describes the financial sector’s challenges that necessitate the amendment of the said law. The salient...

The paper reviews India’s macroeconomic performance and policies since 2000. The first section briefly summarizes key macroeconomic developments regarding economic growth, inflation, external balance, the fiscal situation and aggregate savings and investment. The second section considers...

The ambitious development plans for the Lancang-Mekong River Basin (LMRB) could have serious environmental, social, cultural and even geopolitical ramifications that could in turn destabilise the Mekong Subregion (MS). On the premise that frameworks for regional cooperation offer a viable route...

In this context, higher education as well as research and development (R&D) have long since ceased to be purely the domain of the developed Western economies. Numerous regions of the world, some in the emerging markets in particular – the often-cited BRIC countries – are catching...

This paper develops an index for measuring the economic power of governments viewed as entities in themselves. The basic idea is to encapsulate the economic representative power of a nation’s government in the international arena in as simple and parsimonious a manner as possible. For...