IMF Working Papers

The Effect of External Conditions on Growth in Latin America

By Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Pär Österholm

July 1, 2007

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Jeromin Zettelmeyer, and Pär Österholm. The Effect of External Conditions on Growth in Latin America, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2007) accessed November 21, 2024
Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

This paper investigates the sensitivity of Latin American GDP growth to external developments using a Bayesian VAR model with informative steady-state priors. The model is estimated on quarterly data from 1994 to 2006 on key external and Latin American variables. It finds that 50 to 60 percent of the variation in Latin American GDP growth is accounted for by external shocks. Conditional forecasts for a variety of external scenarios suggest that Latin American growth is robust to moderate declines in commodity prices and U.S. or world growth, but sensitive to more extreme shocks, particularly a combined external slowdown and tightening of world financial conditions.

Subject: Commodity prices, Corporate bonds, Emerging and frontier financial markets, Vector autoregression, Yield curve

Keywords: Commodity price, Emerging market, Standard deviation, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    36

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2007/176

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2007176

  • ISBN:

    9781451867404

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941

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