This paper examines the size and source of external spillovers to Australia and New Zealand based on a structural vector autoregression (VAR) approach. It finds that during the last decade shocks from emerging Asia have become more important than those from the United States in affecting...

This paper investigates empirically the pass-through of money market interest rates to retail banking interest rates in Chile, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and five European countries. Overall, Chile''s pass-through does not appear atypical. Based on a standard...

This paper re-examines empirical exchange rate puzzles by focusing on three OECD economies (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) where primary commodities constitute a significant share of their exports. For Australia and New Zealand especially, we find that the U.S. dollar price of their...

This paper studies the impact effect of monetary policy shocks—identified by the reaction of three month market interest rates to policy announcements—on the exchange rate in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand during the 1990s. The main results are that (1) on average, a 100 basis point...

Australia's recent economic performance has been impressive. It has experienced steady growth since the early 1990s and inflation has averaged just 2 percent over the same period. This strong showing marks a departure from the performance of the postwar years, when falling productivity and...

This paper reviews developments in the Australian economy during the prolonged expansion of the 1990s. The focus is on developments in the real sector, public finances, monetary policy, and the balance of payments during 1996–97. The paper reviews longer-term developments in the labor market...

This paper reviews Australian banks’ performance from an international perspective, with a focus on changes in capital and liquidity risk. The paper analyses the extent of any vulnerability that might arise from a potential deterioration in the funding markets and discusses whether liquidity...

This Selected Issues paper examines the role that government policy in Australia plays in influencing household saving, both directly through its own saving and the structure of the tax, social security and welfare systems, and indirectly through the influence of the policy environment on...

This paper compares the evolution of the Australian current account balance over the period 1954–94 against an optimal current account derived from a consumption-smoothing model. The findings indicate that the Australian current account was not used to smooth consumption optimally in the...

This paper reviews developments in the Australian economy during 1994–95. In 1994/95, real GDP grew by 41⁄2 percent as growth in domestic demand accelerated sharply, rising by 63⁄4 percent, despite the impact of a severe drought on farm output. Business investment increased by 171⁄2...