Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE BSA -- III. KEY FEATURES OF THE FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS -- IV. DATA METHODOLOGIES AND AVAILABILITY FOR BALANCE SHEET ANALYSIS -- V. USING TIMELY, HIGH-FREQUENCY BALANCE SHEET ANALYSIS IN SURVEILLANCE -- VI. CONCLUSIONS -- REFERENCES.

Several emerging economies have, until recently, experienced large government surpluses and accelerating foreign exchange reserve accumulation. This has been accompanied by economic booms, exchange rate appreciations and in some cases increases in domestic inflation. We show that one way to...

This paper assembles a comprehensive dataset of the currency composition of countries' external balance sheets for 50 economies over the period 1990-2020. We document the following findings: (i) the US dollar and the euro still dominate global external balance sheets; (ii) there were striking...

The assessment of external positions and exchange rates of member countries is a key mandate of the IMF. The External Balance Assessment (EBA) methodology has provided the framework for conducting external sector assessments by Fund staff since its introduction in 2012. This paper provides the...

In this paper, the IMF's new Global Economy Model (GEM) is used to estimate the contribution of unbalanced growth to the decline in the share of goods production in Australia and New Zealand. The simulation results suggest that faster productivity growth in the tradable goods sector in...

Using a central bank legislation database, this paper documents and analyzes worldwide institutional arrangements for central bank lending to the government and identifies international practices. Key findings are: (i) in most advanced countries, central banks do not finance government...

This paper discusses the challenging question of whether central banks should use treasury bills or central bank bills for draining excess liquidity in the banking system. While recognizing that there are practical reasons for using central bank bills, the paper argues that treasury bills are...

After reviewing the economic reform strategy of Mauritius for the past 10 years in the face of several external shocks, we apply a balance sheet analysis (BSA) focusing on currency, maturity, and intersectoral mismatches. In reviewing developments over this decade, we find that the currency and...

We develop a multicountry model in which governments aim at excessive spending in order to serve the narrow interests of the group in power. This puts pressure on the monetary authorities to extract seigniorage, and thus affects the incentives countries would have to participate in a monetary...

In economies in transition, the development of financial markets is a common objective linking the monetary and fiscal authorities, while monetary and public debt management cannot be strictly separated. This calls for close coordination of objectives and instruments of monetary and debt...