The current account has always been a neglected variable in the management of the Euro area and in the assessment of its members' performance; so has, as a consequence, the savings-investment balance. This paper first reviews the arguments that explain this attitude and justify, under some...

The current account has always been a neglected variable in the management of the Euro area and in the assessment of its members' performance; so has, as a consequence, the savings-investment balance. This paper first reviews the arguments that explain this attitude and justify, under some...

The Italian economy has often puzzled foreign observers over the past fifteen years. In this article we attempt to interpret these developments. In our interpretation, some implications of which are perhaps of more than local interest, we stress the role of policies throughout the period.

In the past three years, the countries that belong to the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Monetary System (EMS) have experienced a very rapid process of financial integration.

This Report examines the monetary unification of Europe and the creation of a European Central Bank. It deals first with the macroeconomics of monetary union and highlights four issues. What monetary constitution is required to deliver price stability, and do the draft statutes of the European...

This paper analyses the constraints on the choice of the conversion rates resulting from the fact that the external value of the Ecu cannot be changed at the start of the third stage of EMU and that one Ecu must be converted into one Euro. These constraints force the authorities to accept the...

If the third stage of monetary union in Europe begins on 1 January 1999, not all EU countries will participate: two, with opt-out clauses, may choose to stay out; others will have a derogation because they do not fulfil the required conditions. The Maastricht Treaty, while silent on the regime...

This paper attempts to provide an interpretation of recent developments in the EMS. The System has evolved from a regime of adjustable, frequently adjusted parities, where capital controls provided a shelter to weaker currencies, to one where this shelter is being removed, in advance of Stage...