This study is focused upon the involvement of the central banks regarding the fulfillment of the two main objectives: price stability and financial stability. These two key concepts are part of an old and ongoing debate that the current turmoil has revived, and that is whether monetary policy...

This 2003 Article IV Consultation highlights that Israel’s economy has entered a modest recovery path, after almost three years of recession. Led by external demand, real GDP is estimated to have grown 1.3 percent in 2003, despite anemic investment. Furthermore, high frequency indicators...

How to entrench hard-won gains, increase resilience to shocks, and improve growth performance to reduce poverty? As Central America moves forward in regaining macroeconomic stability, these are the challenges. This study analyzes Central America’s real, fiscal, monetary, and financial...

The recent recovery in Latin America has been impressive but also raises the question whether this represents a fundamental break with the region's history of boom-bust cycles. The paper traces how this history of macroeconomic volatility and financial crisis over the past century has adversely...

Recent international financial crisis has highlighted the crucial importance of financial stability and showed clearly that ensuring price stability as an objective of monetary policy is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to ensure financial stability. In this context, there have been...

This paper discusses key findings of the Third Review for Peru and Inflation Consultation Under the Stand-By Arrangement. All performance criteria for end-December 2007 and end-March 2008 were observed, but inflation in March exceeded the upper limit of the program’s consultation band...

This paper discusses key findings of the Seventh Review and Inflation Consultation Under the Stand-By Arrangement for Turkey. Macroeconomic developments have become less favorable since the last review in May 2007. Political developments have distracted attention from an ambitious economic...

Iceland’s 2008 Article IV Consultation shows that the long expansion is coming to an end, exposing the economy’s overstretched private sector balance sheets, large macroeconomic imbalances, and high dependence on foreign financing. With external liquidity constraints binding,...

This paper estimates neutral real interest rate (NRIR) ranges for 10 Latin American countries that either have full-fledged inflation targeting regimes in place or have recently adopted them, using an array of methodologies commonly used in the literature. We find that NRIRs have declined in the...