Globalisation may be defined as the increasing interaction among, and integration of, the activities, especially economic activities, of human societies around the world. As dramatised by the demonstrations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Seattle in December 2001, globalisation...

This paper examines the consequences of heightened capital mobility and of the integration of developing economies in increasingly globalized markets for the exchange rate regimes of the industrial, developing, and transition economies. It builds upon previous studies by IMF staff on various...

Capital account liberalization - orderly, properly sequence, and befitting the individual circumstances of countries- is an inevitable step for all countries wishing to realize the benefits of the globalized economy. This paper reviews the theories behind capital account liberalization and...

This study addresses major policy issues associated with the future of the international monetary system. It focuses on whether there is a need for fundamental reform of this system, defined as systematic and sustained effort on the part of the three major industrial countries (United States,...

This paper presents a selective survey of issues relevant to the choice of nominal anchors for monetary policy. Section I reviews long price-level histories for the United Kingdom and United States, which reveal that the price level behaved very differently following WWII in these countries than...

This paper explains the IMF approach to economic stabilization. It argues that a Fund-supported program is a process, comprising six broadly defined phases, that evolves along a multiplicity of potential pathways. The paper discusses the three-pronged approach to stabilization at the core of all...

In the six years since the advent of the euro, short-term exchange rate volatility against the U.S. dollar is unchanged from that of predecessor currencies. The wide down/up swing of the euro/dollar exchange over six years is no greater than that seen in earlier periods, especially 1980–1987....