While in the early nineties Colombia grew at rates exceeding 4% and was catalogued as one of the top emerging markets, in 1999 its economy fell 4%, its exchange rate regime (a target zone) collapsed and by June of 2000 its unemployment level peaked at 20.4%. This turn of events is clearly...

I build a general equilibrium, Þnancial accelerator model that incorporates an explicit technology for the intermediary sector. A credit multiplier emerges be- cause of a borrowing constraint that is a function of asset prices, internal funds and lending rates. With this Þnancial friction I...

We identified and estimated a SVAR model in the real and nominal exchange rates through the Blanchard and Quah decomposition. This enables us to provide results regarding the magnitude and length of nominal and real shock effects in the real and nominal exchange rate. We estimate that the...

La economía colombiana ha venido experimentando un fuerte proceso de apreciación real en lo que va corrido de los noventas. En efecto, tomando un índice del tipo de cambio real definido como la relación entre el precio de los bienes transables y el precio de los bienes no transables se...

La dinámica del nivel de precios en el caso colombiano durante los últimos 25 años, ha sido presentado como paradigma de un proceso que, sin generar las perturbaciones relacionadas con episodios de alta inflación, tampoco constituye una dinámica de inflación baja. Una manera de comprender...

Un país con política cambiaria que no sea de flotación pura, demanda reservas internacionales con múltiples propósitos, el principal siendo garantizar el flujo de pagos y evitar un derrumbe del sistema cambiario vigente(1). Por ejemplo, si la tasa de cambio es fija, las reservas sirven para...

Several Observers of Latin America have underscored the notion that an emerging "consensus" regarding the role of the State in the economy surfaced during the 1980's (v.g World Bank, 1993; Williamson, 1993). Starting from an emphasis on issues regarding stabilization, there are three main and...

Desde enero de 1994 la política cambiaria colombiana se basa en un sistema formal de bandas para la tasa de cambio, mediante el cual el Banco Central se compromete a intervenir en el mercado cuando la tasa de cambio llega a unos determinados niveles mínimo y máximo, definidos anteriormente y...

Graph 1 shows a conventional PPP measure of the real exchange rate in Colombia and an index of the relative price of tradable goods in terms of non tradeable. The common conclusion is that, since 1990-92 there has been a medium term process by which the RER has appreciated by as much as 26%. The...

Many central banks, particularly in the developing world, aim for exchange rate stability as a macroeconomic goal. However, most are reluctant to relinquish monetary policy autonomy, so they end up operating through both interest rate and foreign exchange interventions. But the use of multiple...