Although Armenia itself has a population of only about 3 million, an estimated 8 million Armenians live abroad. In this paper, the size and the sources of remittances to Armenia are first discussed. Then, the appropriate definition of remittances and subsequently present estimates of the...

Dutch macroeconomic statistics are generally in accordance with internationally accepted standards and guidelines on concepts and definitions, scope, classification and sectorization, and basis for recording. They are also available with periodicity and timeliness that always meet, and sometimes...

This Selected Issues Paper on Iran reviews that monetary factors are the main determinants of inflation in the country. Government spending out of oil revenues leads to large liquidity injections that the central bank accommodates owing to its efforts to prevent a significant nominal...

The report covers national accounts, prices (consumer and producer prices), government finance, monetary, financial and international accounts (balance-of-payments and international investment position) statistics. Assessment of macroeconomic datasets was conducted using data quality assessment...

Economic outcomes in Jamaica have fallen short of the authorities’ objectives in recent years. As the government looks to reinvigorate its growth and debt reduction strategy, it is instructive to examine how exogenous shocks and other unanticipated developments can affect economic...

Korea’s statistics are generally of a high quality, and reflect a significant improvement since the last Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes. Korea’s adherence to internationally accepted statistical practices requires cross-cutting recommendations, and the development...

Mexican macroeconomic statistics are in a period of transition as recent laws have strengthened the legal backing and have changed institutional arrangements. Mexico is in observance of the Special Data Dissemination Standard, meeting the specifications for data coverage, periodicity and...

Uruguay has experienced a remarkable recovery since the 2002 crisis, supported by sound policies and favorable external conditions. With the framework put in place in 2002, Uruguay abandoned an exchange rate peg in favor of a free float, adoped a monetary regime initially based on money targets,...

We show the importance of a dynamic aggregation bias in accounting for the PPP puzzle. We prove that established time-series and panel methods substantially exaggerate the persistence of real exchange rates because of heterogeneity in the dynamics of disaggregated relative prices. When...

The paper examines empirically the question of whether more unequal societies spend more on income redistribution than their more egalitarian counterparts. Theoretical arguments on this issue are inconclusive. The political economy literature suggests that redistributive spending is higher in...