The Czech National Bank has a respectable track record in terms of its policy actions and the corresponding inflation outturns. Using a simple forward-looking policy rule, we find that its main communication tools-inflation targets, inflation forecasts, verbal assessments of the inflation risks...

This paper examines the evolution, and impact on stabilization, of macroeconomic policies in Armenia during 1994-96. Fiscal and monetary policies have been effective in stabilizing the Armenian economy and facilitating significant growth, although they have not always worked in cohort....

This paper uses the Global Integrated Monetary and Fiscal Model (GIMF), a New Keynesian open-economy general equilibrium model suitable for an integrated evaluation of monetary and fiscal policies, to analyze monetary policy challenges facing the Czech Republic. In the context of the recent...

In this paper, we consider the design of the surveillance, and, in particular, the fiscal criteria in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) with the view to ensuring they are consistent with internal and external sustainability. This consistency is important within a...

Monetary policy, at least in part, operates through both an interest rate and credit channel. The question arises, therefore, whether monetary policy is a less potent a device in affecting output and inflation in countries that have low levels of credit and where investment and consumption are...

Statistical data and issues are discussed in this paper. Mauritania reached the completion point under the enhanced Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. In July 2004, a new economic team took actions to tighten fiscal and monetary policies. The authorities intend to adopt sound...

This book includes 21 case studies of technical assistance provided by the IMF's former Monetary and Financial Systems Department during 2003-06. These studies cover issues related to monetary policy and operations, financial markets, payment systems, and financial regulation and supervision,...

Uruguay has experienced a remarkable recovery since the 2002 crisis, supported by sound policies and favorable external conditions. With the framework put in place in 2002, Uruguay abandoned an exchange rate peg in favor of a free float, adoped a monetary regime initially based on money targets,...

Since 1991, the 15 countries under review - have to varying degrees, been pursuing reforms whose broad objectives have been to achieve market-based determination of interest rates and exchange rates, manage banking system liquidity through market operations with indirect instruments, and provide...

This paper charts Tunisia's transformation from an inward-looking, heavily regulated economy into a predominantly market- and export-oriented one. The paper highlights some of the major challenges facing the country and draws lessons from Tunisia's experience that can be useful for other countries