In this paper, the author considers the sovereign debt in the form of one-period government bonds with default risk, which can be purchased by and traded among domestic and foreign investors. She shows that the weight assigned to the lenders' interest by the borrowing government at the time of...

The staff report for the 2007 Article IV Consultation highlights Turkey’s economic revival and policies to entrench macroeconomic stability. Turkey has experienced an impressive economic revival in recent years. Exports have continued to gain market shares, as the effects of an...

Portugal's economy faced severe crisis during the global economic and financial crisis. In this context, Portugal's authorities have put forward an economically well-balanced program that will focus on structural reforms to boost growth and employment, ensure balanced fiscal sustainability,...

Grenada quickly recovered from the devastating effects of Hurricane Ivan. Executive Directors welcomed the economic reform program aimed to promote economic growth, restore fiscal and debt sustainability, reduce vulnerabilities, and alleviate poverty. They emphasized the need to strengthen the...

This paper discusses key findings of the 2006 Regional Discussions on the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. Fiscal revenues have improved, but there has been only a modest improvement in the fiscal and debt positions. Tax revenues have strengthened with the uptick in economic activity,...

Fiscal problems have long been considered a central feature of financial--that is, currency, debt, and banking--crises. This paper addresses four questions: What are the fiscal causes of crises? Which fiscal vulnerability indicators help to predict crises? Can fiscal variables explain the...

We examine how the cost of corporate credit varies around fiscal consolidations aimed at reducing government debt. Using a new dataset on fiscal consolidations and syndicated corporate loan data, we find that loan spreads increase with fiscal consolidations, especially for small firms, domestic...

Highly favorable external conditions have helped Latin America strengthen its economic fundamentals over the last decade. But, has the region built enough buffers to guard itself from a weakening of the external environment? This paper addresses this question by developing a simple framework...

This paper explores the hypothesis that the dollarization of liabilities in emerging market economies is the result of a lack of monetary credibility. I present a model in which firms choose the currency composition of their debts so as to minimize their probability of default. Decreasing...