Canada has enjoyed high growth while adjusting smoothly to commodity price gains, currency appreciation, and, more recently, slowing U.S. demand. Monetary policy has appropriately shifted to guarding against increasing near-term downside risks. A sound fiscal framework policy has produced an...

This paper investigates the sources of fluctuations in the rand-U.S. dollar exchange rate in 2001 and 2002 using an empirical exchange rate model which identifies aggregate supply, aggregate demand, and nominal disturbances as possible sources for exchange rate fluctuations. According to our...

This 2008 Article IV Consultation highlights that Ghana’s growth has remained strong, fuelled by both the private and public sectors. The Ghanaian economy maintained strong growth of about 6½ percent in 2007 and the first months of 2008. The private sector has responded positively to...

A fear about EMU was that in the absence of national currencies, country-specific shocks would result in greater current account divergences between member states. This paper finds that divergences across euro-area countries are smaller and have not risen relative to those across 13 other...

This Selected Issues paper for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is examined. Real GDP growth accelerated to 5 percent in 2007 and 6 percent in the first half of 2008, from its historical average of about 3 percent. Increased investment, partly financed by FDI, is the main driver...

This study examines the degree of exchange rate pass through (EPRT) into producer and consumer prices in Maldives. ERPT to consumer prices is first estimated using a nonparametric approach. A recursive vector autoregression is then used to model both consumer and producer price changes. The...

This paper discusses key findings of the Fourth Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement for Georgia. The strategy remains appropriate, and program targets for 2010 are in line with those presented at the Third Review. Fiscal policy will transition from an expansionary stance in 2009 to a path of...

The experiences of Caribbean Economic Community countries show that exchange rate depreciation in these countries is inflationary, and that, while changes in the relative prices of tradables may affect exports, tourism, and imports, nominal exchange rate changes have no predictable effect on...

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR)'s healthy labor market and supportive fiscal policy helped its domestic economy's resilience, while its gross domestic product (GDP) growth was marginally slow owing to its weak external environment. Its fiscal policy has been effective in...