Current Account and Precautionary Savings for Exporters of Exhaustible Resources

By Rudolfs Bems, Irineu E de Carvalho Filho

February 1, 2009

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Rudolfs Bems, and Irineu E de Carvalho Filho. Current Account and Precautionary Savings for Exporters of Exhaustible Resources, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2009) 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

Exporters of exhaustible resources have historically exhibited higher income volatility than other economies, suggesting a heightened role for precautionary savings. This paper uses a parameterized small open economy model to quantify the role of precautionary savings in economies with exhaustible resources, when the only source of uncertainty is the price of the exhaustible resource. Results show that the precautionary motive can generate sizable external sector savings. When aggregated over the sample countries, precautionary savings in 2006 add up to 3.2 percent of GDP. The quantitative importance of the precautionary motive varies considerably across the sample countries and is driven primarily by the weight of exhaustible resource revenues in future income. The parameterized model fares well at capturing current account balances in both cross-section and time-series data.

Subject: Consumption, Current account, Current account balance, Non-renewable resources, Precautionary savings

Keywords: Interest rate, Open economy, Precautionary saving, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

38
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2009/033
Stock No:

WPIEA2009033
ISBN:

9781451871807
ISSN:

1018-5941

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