Archived Series > World Economic and Financial Surveys
Abstract
This paper reviews developments and issues in the exchange arrangements and currency convertibility of IMF members. Against the backdrop of continuing financial globalization and a series of emerging market crises since 1997, there have been important changes in the evolution of exchange rate regimes and the pace of liberalization of current and capital transactions among IMF member countries. There has been a shift away from intermediate regimes according to the IMF's official exchange rate regime classification system based on de facto exchange rate policies. The de facto exchange rate classification system has helped to clarify the nature and role of members' exchange rate regimes. It has facilitated discussions with country authorities about the implementation of exchange rate regimes and hence has contributed to more effective surveillance of the international monetary system. The use of exchange controls appears to have been little influenced by the degree of flexibility of exchange rate regimes or the occurrences of currency crises.
Abstract
This paper reports the on-off nature of emerging market access to international capital markets appears to have become a key characteristic of international financial markets. Emerging market borrowers have begun to adapt: when the market for US dollar-denominated bonds has closed, these borrowers turn to the syndicated loan markets, attempt to issue in bonds denominated in euro or yen, or issue in local-currency bond markets. In addition, they employ staff with extensive experience in investment banking and securities trading, exploit “windows of opportunity” to prefund their yearly financing requirement, and engage in debt exchanges to extend the maturity of their debt and avoid a bunching of maturities. The consolidation of financial institutions is driven by attempts to exploit economies of scale and scope, and technological advances such as the Internet and deregulation that facilitate universal banking activities are making it easier to reap such economies. Advances in technology are also transforming the securities trading industry.
Abstract
This study surveys recent trends in private market financing for developing countries. In addition to examining developments in flows to developing countries through banking and securites markets, it analyzes the institutional and regulatory framework for developing country finance, institutional investor behavior and pricing of developing country stocks, management of public sector debt and implications of private external borrowing for macroeconomic policy management, and progress in commercial bank debt restructuring in low-income countries
Abstract
The global trend toward lilberalization in countries international payments and transfer systems has been widespread in both industrial and developing countries and most dramatic in Central and Eastern Europe. Countries in general have brought their exchange systems more in line with market principles and moved toward more flexible exchange rate arrangements. This study updates previous studies published under the title Developments in International Exchange and Payments Systems.
Abstract
This paper reports the growing number of low-income countries that are making efforts to resolve their debt problems, often aided by the resources of the debt reduction facility for countries of the International Development Association (IDA). Progress for most, however, remains slow. With the backing of IDA resources and assistance from official bilateral sources, debt buy-backs have been concluded by Bolivia, Guyana, Mozambique, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe, Uganda, and Zambia. Preliminary discussions on similar operations are under way with several other countries. Although most of the major baric debt cases have been resolved, attention still needs to be focused on the problems of low-income countries. In many of these countries, the process of debt restructuring has been delayed owing to economic and political difficulties. To maintain market access on reasonable terms, countries need consistently to implement strong macroeconomic and structural policy programs. Maintenance of such programs is likely to be particularly important in the period ahead, given the high degree of uncertainty with regard to interest rate movements in the industrial countries.
Abstract
This paper provides information on private market financing for developing countries, covering developments since August 1992. Progress in dealing with bank debt problems has been based in large part on persistence in the pursuit of stabilization and reform programs. Such programs have resulted in strengthened external positions that have allowed debtor countries to accumulate reserves for use in debt-reduction operations. All of the countries where negotiations are now continuing had at some point suspended payments on medium- and long-term debt. Banks have recognized that resumption of regular (albeit partial) payments can be politically difficult in the absence of a quid pro quo. The group of middle-and lower-middle income countries with debt problems still to come to terms with bank creditors on debt-reduction packages is now limited. Many of these remaining countries (including Bulgaria, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Poland) have already begun negotiations with creditor banks.
Abstract
This paper reviews recent developments in private market financing for developing countries. Bank creditors themselves have been more amenable to restructuring in an environment where secondary market discounts on bank claims were falling significantly below the level of bank provisioning. This has allowed banks to realize substantial book profits by participating in debt operations. Debt conversions have also played a substantial role in reducing commercial bank debt. The pace of such conversions, however, has slowed over the past year in response to lower secondary market discounts on external debt and to a drop in privatization-related conversions. The re-entry to international capital markets by certain middle-income countries that had experienced debt-servicing difficulties gathered momentum over the past year. Total bond issues in international markets by the main re-entrants accounted for over half of issues by developing countries in this period. In contrast to the experience in securities markets, new bank lending to market re-entrants has remained limited and is confined mainly to short-term trade lines or project financing.
Abstract
This paper presents a survey by IMF staff of recent trends in private market financing for developing countries. In addition to summarizing recent developments in capital flows to developing countries through banking and securities markets, it analyzes three issues of particular interest in the debt and financing outlook for developing countries. The underlying structure of market financing for several developing countries has undergone significant change in the recent past. The change has been prompted by recognition of the adverse impact of continued uncertainty about debt refinancing terms and of a growing debt stock on countries’ development prospects, and by a concurrent reduction in banks’ financial vulnerability arising from their developing country portfolios. The analysis focuses on the extent to which capital repatriation may be influenced by such specific actions as amnesties, capital account liberalization, the availability of foreign-currency denominated instruments, and debt conversion schemes.
Abstract
This paper summarizes major measures taken in the international exchange and trade systems in 1988 and developments in exchange arrangements and the evolution of exchange rates. The exchange arrangements adopted by members since 1973 cover a broad spectrum of degrees of flexibility, from single-currency pegs to a freely floating system. Most countries have adopted arrangements that fall clearly into one or another of the major categories of the present classification system adopted by the IMF in 1982, and countries with dual markets usually have one market that is clearly more important than the other, which allows accurate classification by major market. Changes in IMF members' arrangements for their currencies during this decade have shown a distinct tendency to move toward more flexible arrangements and away from single-currency pegs, continuing a trend that began in the mid-1970s. A qualitative sense of the significance of the trend toward more flexible arrangements can be conveyed by the degree that world trade is affected by countries adopting different arrangements.
Abstract
This paper emphasizes on the policy reaction of the agencies and their authorities to countries in various stages of debt-servicing difficulties. It was found that, largely for competitive reasons and provided that significant arrears had not emerged, agencies as a group had tended to remain quite open for debtors pursuing policies that could be expected to lead to payments difficulties, thus facilitating the postponement of necessary adjustment by the debtor and increasing the likelihood of eventual debt-servicing difficulties. Despite this more open stance, the volume of new medium-term credit and cover commitments to developing countries appears to have fallen off sharply over the past two years. Although for some debtors the operative constraint is clearly on the supply of new credits and cover, this is not the general case and, indeed, agencies reported net repayments from some countries for which they were wide open for new business.