After discussing major conceptual, and empirical issues relevant to the exchange rate policies of East Asian countries, the authors propose a regional exchange rate arrangement designed to promote intra-regional exchange rate stability, and regional economic growth. They argue that: 1) For...

Japan remains the world's largest national donor of aid funds. But the Japanese government, facing prolonged economic stagnation and mounting public sector debt, is under increasing public pressure to reduce aid budgets and to use official development assistance in more explicit pursuit of...

The paper reviews the experience of regional economic cooperation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Conceived as a regional security alliance, the GCC has evolved to become a common market in the making. All six GCC countries participate in the common market project, and additional...

The paper uses the emerging Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community as a motivation to explore the issue of capital flow management in an economic community. Although there is an increasingly shared view that capital flow management measures should be part of the...

The expansion of central bank balance sheets and the changes in their composition during financial crises have been effective in rectifying market malfunction and stabilising financial markets in Japan and elsewhere. However, the unconventional policy measures are accompanied by costs, as they...

Since its launch in September 2006, the Asian Research Programme has focused on policy-oriented studies for central banks and supervisory authorities in the Asia-Pacific region. Under the programme, the BIS Representative Office for Asia and the Pacific has co-organised a series of conferences,...

The paper examines the recent European crisis management programs of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to see how the lessons of Asia were applied. Compared to the Asian programs of 1997, the European programs of 2008 were better funded and their structural conditionality more focused. Other...

The paper analyzes the joint determination of the exchange rate and the interest rate in terms of the stochastic structure of underlying real and monetary factors. It argues that the information contained in the covariation of the exchange rate and the interest rate, as two variables that...