The International Monetary Fund has significantly improved its surveillance of the EU and the euro area, along the lines suggested by the Fund’s 2011 Triennial Surveillance Review and in application of its 2012 Integrated Surveillance Decision. Nonetheless, there is still margin for further...

Gross external balance sheets are important in explaining the incidence of the financial crisis across economies. Just as for banks, leverage of the national balance sheet was an indicator of subsequent vulnerability. Countries that also experienced strong domestic credit growth, in part fueled...

This article looks at how the United Kingdom can, surprisingly, generate net investment income from net debt. The article explores the possible linkages between the improvement in net investment income and the stability of the sterling effective exchange rate index in the face of persistent...

There is substantial evidence that openness to trade raises economic growth and boosts living standards. But trade liberalisation has been asymmetric, focused on goods rather than services trade. The decline in goods trade barriers may have favoured countries specialising in goods, like China,...