The staff report for the 2005 Article IV Consultation on Botswana highlights key issues, recent developments, and policy discussions. The authorities are strengthening their structural reform agenda and moving ahead with sector-specific development programs with a view to sustaining annual...

The Libyan economy remains saddled with extensive controls, restrictions, and subsidies that continue to distort prices and resource allocations, hinder efficiency and competitiveness, and impede the performance of the economy. Executive Directors commended the liberalizing of the economy, and...

Hong Kong SAR's economic integration with the Mainland has primarily taken place in the Pearl River Delta (PRD). Taking stock of integration trends, this paper discusses key implications for ensuring economic benefits of further integration are sustained and associated costs minimized. Besides...

This paper documents trends in movement and composition of capital flows into India in a comparative perspective, examines the impact of these flows upon key macroeconomic variables in the economy, and dwells on implications for economic policy. We find that an inflow of foreign capital results...

This paper theoretically and empirically investigates export sensitivity to exchange rates in the context of intra-industry trade (IIT). It is assumed that more IIT implies a smaller elasticity of substitution among differentiated products and vice versa. The model presented suggests the gap in...

Family remittances are important for El Salvador's economy. This paper analyzes the impact of remittances on El Salvador's economy and the spillover effects on the other Central American countries. A vector autoregression (VAR) model is formulated, consisting of real and monetary variables. The...

The experiences of Caribbean Economic Community countries show that exchange rate depreciation in these countries is inflationary, and that, while changes in the relative prices of tradables may affect exports, tourism, and imports, nominal exchange rate changes have no predictable effect on...

One of the most significant recent developments in world trade has been the entry of China into the World Trade Organization (WTO). This paper examines the implications of China's WTO accession for India's trade, using both econometrics and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. The paper...

The paper provides a systematic analysis of bilateral, source and host factors driving portfolio equity investment across countries, using newly-released data on international equity holdings at the end of 2001. It develops a model that links bilateral equity holdings to bilateral trade in goods...

The main findings are as follows: (1) an increase in private national saving during 2001-03 was the key contributor to the turnaround in Pakistan's external current account during this period; (2) while Pakistan's growth was mainly export-led before 2003-04, it was largely led by domestic demand...