Romania’s external position continues to improve. Inflation peaked in December 2010, and is now likely to decline. Financial market stress has remained relatively low in recent months. The current account deficit improved from 13½ percent of GDP in 2007 to about 4¼ percent of GDP in...

Owing to the deteriorating economy of Guatemala, authorities requested a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with access of SDR 630.6 million in April 2009, which aimed at safeguarding macroeconomic and financial stability and anchoring investor confidence. Executive Directors have agreed that the SBA is...

St. Lucia faces significant policy challenges in the aftermath of Hurricane Tomas. It is experiencing an urgent balance of payments need that would result in a severe economic disruption. The government is focused on achieving medium-term debt sustainability. The policies outlined tackle urgent...

This paper examines the various roles of IMF financing in crisis prevention. Emerging market economies that experienced financial crises in the past have been subject to enormous economic and social costs, highlighting the importance of crisis prevention. While the main defense against a crisis...

Condition of balance of payments is a crucial factor for effective development of small open economies, such as Poland and Ukraine. Because of their dependence on situation on international markets, Poland and Ukraine are really vulnerable to fluctuations of global conjuncture. That is why it is...

Preface Over the last decade and a half the global economic order has been undergoing major changes. While this may be thought to reflect the results of a multilateral and participatory process involving debate and negotiations, in reality it has been mostly driven by the economic interests of...

The paper aims to analyze the European economic scenario and to provide forecasts about the future of the common currency, the euro, at the light of the recent economic and financial crisis. At first, the paper discusses the theoretical background used to explain thecrisis. Then it illustrates...

This paper analyses the history and effectiveness of the two major mechanisms of resolution of balance of payments crisis. It argues that IMF lending has met its counter-cyclical objectives through history and has been improving in terms of providing adequate lending facilities as well as...

Balance of Payments (BoP), being a record of the monetary transactions over a period with the rest of the world, reflects all payments and liabilities to foreigners and all payments and obligations received from foreigners. In this sense, the balance of payments is one of the major indicators of...