The cyclically adjusted budget balance (CAB) plays a key role in the EU fiscal surveillance framework. It started off in a supporting role in the shadow of the headline defi cit and, before long, turned into the linchpin of the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact. The steep ascent was driven...

As the recent struggles connected with the readjustment of exchange rates within the European Monetary System have shown, the relatively unproblematic "running in" period of the EMS, which was supposed to be a constructive contribution to the creation of a more viable international monetary...

The record of the European Monetary System at the five-year mark is rather a disappointment for the System’s advocates. Has the “EMS experiment” failed? Or is there potential for developing the System further to the advantage of all member countries?

Critics of the EMS claim that it has failed to realise the hopes aroused at the time of its inception; a convergence of economic policies, they maintain, has not been induced by fixed exchange rates. What is the true position with regard to the convergence of economic policies?