Books

August 21, 2000

Inflation Targeting in Practice: Strategic and Operational Issues and Application to Emerging Market Economies

Description: A growing number of countries are anchoring their monetary policy through explicit inflation targeting. This policy has already scored remarkable successes in several countries, establishing central bank credibility, and reining in inflation where it had long been stubbornly high. But implementing inflation targets raises many difficult questions. What prerequisites must an economy and its institutions meet for the strategy to work? What choices should central banks make from the menu of possible variations on the basic approach? This book summarizes the discussions in a seminar at which economists and policymakers from ten countries reviewed their experiences with inflation targeting.

Notes: The Central Bank of Brazil and the Monetary and Exchange Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund held a seminar on inflation targeting in Rio de Janeiro on May 3-5, 1999. Its purpose was to analyze the experience to date of the countries that have been operating under an inflation targeting framework, and to identify and review the steps that Brazil should consider in adopting such a framework, to enhance the chances of its success. This volume gathers together the summaries of the presentations given at the seminar.

July 5, 2000

Sovereign Assets and Liabilities Management

Description: This volume, edited by David Folkerts-Landau and Marcel Cassard, consists of papers presented at a conference held in Hong Kong SAR that was hosted by the IMF and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. It focuses on a wide range of issues confronting policymakers in managing their sovereign assets and liabilities in a world of mobile capital and integrated capital markets. Topics include public debt management strategy, central bank reserves management, technical and quantitive aspects of risk management, and credit costs and borrowing capacity in optimizing debt management. The papers draw on experiences of policymakers and private sector participants actively involved in formulating and implementing debt and reserves policy.

June 26, 2000

A Better World for All: Progress Toward the International Development Goals

Description: This paper focuses on goal setting for development of the world. The paper highlights that the goals come from the agreements and resolutions of the world conferences organized by the United Nations in the first half of the 1990s. The paper focuses on seven goals that cover poverty, education, gender equality, infant and child mortality, maternal mortality, reproductive health, and environment. Each of the seven goals addresses an aspect of poverty. The paper also emphasizes that these goals should be viewed together because they are mutually reinforcing.

Notes: This report was prepared by the staff of four institutions.

May 12, 2000

External Debt and Capital Flight in Sub-Saharan Africa

Description: Mounting external debt and large-scale capital flight have been at the forefront of Africa's economic problems since the 1980s. External Debt and Capital Flight in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by S. Ibi Ajayi and Mohsin S. Khan, takes a penetrating look at debt and capital flight during the 1990s in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. The book describes the size and composition of debt in the selected countries and examines the causes of the debt buildup. It also assesses the extent of capital flight and suggests ways of stemming the flight of financial resources.

April 11, 2000

External Evaluation of IMF Economic Research Activities

Description: This report, commissioned by the Executive Board, was prepared by a committee of academic economists. The report assesses the appropriateness of current research activities, the quality and added value of the IMF's economic research and its utility in the IMF among its member countries and within the wider economics community. This publication also includes responses to the report by the IMF's staff, Managing Director, and Executive Board.

March 9, 2000

Post-Bubble Blues: How Japan Responded to Asset Price Collapse

Description: What caused Asia's largest economy, once the envy of the world, to lag behind many of the other industrial countries? And why did it take so long for Japan to recover from the bursting of its asset price bubble of the late 1980s? In this volume, a team from the International Monetary Fund examines the causes of the lingering economic problems of Japan, the crisis in its banking system, the reasons for weak business investment, and the government's efforts to kick-start the economy through a series of stimulus packages. This book presents a compelling story about Japan's economy. Its message - that banking reform and corporate restructuring are central to any sustained revival of the economy- is backed up through detailed background research. This research provided the analytical framework for the IMF's policy advice during a period of rapid change--a period during which macroeconomic policymaking moved into uncharted territory. The research papers were prepared by members of the Japan team in the IMF during 1998 and the first half of 1999.

January 24, 2000

International Finance and Financial Crises: Essays in Honor of Robert P. Flood Jr.

Description: This book contains the proceedings of a conference held in honor of Robert P. Flood Jr. Contributors to the conference were invited to address many of the topics that Robert Flood has explored including regime switching, speculative attacks, bubbles, stock market voloatility, macro models with nominal rigidities, dual exchange rates, target zones, and rules versus discretion in monetary policy. The results, contained in this volume, include five papers on topics in international finance.

January 24, 2000

Results of the 1997 Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey

Description: This publication presents the results of a major statistical initiative conducted under the aegis of the International Monetary Fund, by 29 countries. The survey was used to collect information on portfolio invesment assets. It was undertaken in response to recommendations contained in the Report on the Measurement of International Capital Flows (the Godeaux Report), which was published by the International Monetry Fund in 1992. Among the major findings presented in the Godeaux Report was the existence of serious discrepancies in reported global flows of portfolio investment transactions and in associated estimates of stock and investment income.

December 30, 1999

External Evaluation of IMF Surveillance

Description: The IMF's surveillance over its member'seconomic policies is one of the institution's central activities. In keeping with the increasing transparency of the IMF; the Executive Board askes a group of independent external experts to evaluate IMF surveillance, to assess the effectiveness of such surveillance, and to make recommendations for improvements. The group's report looks at the methods, substance, and impact of surveillance, both on individual countries and on the global economy. This publication also includes the reactions of the Executive Board, management, and the staff to the external evaluation.

November 9, 1999

West Bank and Gaza Strip: Economic Developments in the Five Years Since Oslo

Description: This paper assesses macroeconomic developments and progress in institution building during 1994-1998. The five year interim period envisaged in the peace accords has ended, and the paper takes stock of what happened in this period. The paper was prepared in the Spring of 1999 and draws on work done by IMF staff visits to West Bank and Gaza in the fall of 1998 and Spring of 1999. It analyzes developments in a number of areas and draws lessons for the future.