The external sector has an increasing drag on the economy. The current account deficit remains fully financed by FDI, and the underlying balance is consistent with external-debt stabilizing levels. The stock market retrenchment has been severe, but it followed substantial gains since 2006....

The staff report for the 2006 Article IV Consultation on Botswana highlights economic developments and monetary and exchange rate policy. Botswana’s growth has been fueled by continued increases in diamond production; and real diamond output is projected to level off, and then decline...

Indonesia’ 2008 Article IV Consultation reports that Indonesia’s growth performance remains strong despite the deteriorating global environment. The economy remains vulnerable to shifts in investor sentiment, and volatility in the government bond market has increased. The new...

The 2008 Article IV Consultation with the Russian Federation highlights that the Russian banking system has proven to be relatively resilient in the face of worldwide turmoil. The central bank is still intervening heavily in the foreign exchange market, and Russia’s banking system is...

Robust GDP growth, declining unemployment, low and stable inflation, and a string of fiscal and current account surpluses -- it's a record to be envied. These outcomes in Canada owe much to sound macroeconomic policies, as well as to a favorable external environment. This book focuses on these...

This 2003 Article IV Consultation highlights that Israel’s economy has entered a modest recovery path, after almost three years of recession. Led by external demand, real GDP is estimated to have grown 1.3 percent in 2003, despite anemic investment. Furthermore, high frequency indicators...

This 2002 Article IV Consultation highlights that the Israeli economy is in the midst of a deep recession. Waning exports and investment, combined with stagnant private consumption, led to negative growth in 2001 and 2002. The stagnation can be attributed to the burst of the technology bubble,...

The paper presents a DGE model designed as a core projection tool to support monetary policy in inflation-targeting (IT) emerging market economies. The paper uses a particularly simple and flexible general equilibrium model structure that can be amended to account for various phenomena that...

When estimating DSGE models, the number of observable economic variables is usually kept small, and it is conveniently assumed that DSGE model variables are perfectly measured by a single data series. Building upon Boivin and Giannoni (2006), we relax these two assumptions and estimate a fairly...

Dynamic factor models and dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models are widely used for empirical research in macroeconomics. The empirical factor literature argues that the co-movement of large panels of macroeconomic and financial data can be captured by relatively few common...