Two macroeconomic constraints determine the credibility of an exchange rate system: the availability of foreign exchange and the sustainability of fiscal balance. The following paper analyses the relative importance of these constraints for fixed and flexible exchange rate systems, examines the...

Based on theory and on evidence from the Southern Cone the following paper concludes for emerging market economies (1) that fiscal reform is of utmost importance for macroeconomic reforms, (2) that credibility cannot be imported via a fixed exchange rate but has to be established by internal...

The process of economic reform and trade liberalization in Latin America and the Caribbean, under way since the end of the 1980s, has brought about an increasing integration of the countries in the region into the world economy, both in terms of commercial and investment flows. At the same time,...

Latin American and Caribbean countries are today at an important juncture in their international economic relations. Since the end of the 1980s the countries of the region have been pursuing a process of economic reform and opening that has brought about a radical change in their domestic...