Six countries; Qatar, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey (denoted by the acronym QISMUT) are considered the potential primary force of the future international development of Islamic finance. These countries, with both expertise and potential for growth in...

Efficient business transactions requires both liquid cash and electronic transfers. In developing nations, due to technological challenges and level of awareness of the citizens hard currency is most preferred. The demand for currency, however should not be misinterpreted to mean acceptability...

Happiness sums up people's attainments from living. Economics is concerned largely with prosperity as the material contributor to happiness. Prosperity is a relative term rather than an absolute one. Prosperity level can be defined as the feasible material standard of living that an economy can...

The antecedent studies have designed a novel financial mechanism in which, upon trading intellectual capital, the economy creates or receives money to ensure unimpeded capital access and spur its generation and exploitation. This piece summarises some mathematical aspects, allowing us to apply...

China is well-placed to avoid the so-called “middle-income trap” and to continue to converge towards the more advanced economies, even though growth is likely to slow from near double-digit rates in the first decade of this millennium to around 7% at the 2020 horizon. However, in order to...

The European sovereign debt crisis revived the discussion concerning the pros and cons of exchange rate adjustment in the face of asymmetric shocks. Exit from the euro area is to regain rapidly international competitiveness. Exchange rate stability with structural reforms could be beneficial for...

This paper evaluates the effects of capital account controls adopted in the past years by the FLAR’s member countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Perú and Venezuela) on the efficiency of the banking sector, the economic growth and the volatility of output, consumption, and...

Today the global economy is facing down the threat of a multifaceted crisis. Sustained by ultra-low interest rates and unprecedented levels of quantitative easing since the last global financial crisis, the global economy is taking a sharp turn toward tighter monetary policy as it experiences...

We analyze the causes of the apparent bias towards optimism in growth forecasts underpinning the design of IMF-supported programs, which has been documented in the literature. We find that financial variables observable to forecasters are strong predictors of growth forecast errors. The greater...

Modern Money Theory (MMT) has generated considerable scrutiny and discussions over the past decade. While it has gained some acceptance in the financial sector and among some politicians, it has come under strong criticisms from all sides of the academic spectrum and from conservative political...