Eight central and eastern European countries--the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic, and Slovenia--officially joined the European Union (EU) in May 2004. This auspicious milestone marked the beginning of the next major step for these countries in their...

The Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) is the cenerpiece of the International Monetary Fund's strategy to provide assistance on concessional terms to low-income member countries that are undertaking important macroeconomic adjustment and stuctural reforms. By February 1999, a total...

Interest rate policy in the newly reforming Central and Eastern European countries has generally been geared toward establishing positive real interest rates and defending the exchange rate. The principal instrument for this task has been administrative increases in controlled interest rates....

Two waves of large capital inflows to emerging markets in the past 20 years appear to present a paradox: inflows can provide opportunities for faster growth and technology transfer, but they can also feed overheating pressures and unleash forces that push recipients into crisis. This paper...