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Business and Economics > Finance: General

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 146 items for :

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  • Financial Aspects of Economic Integration x
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Cover Policy Papers
Key Trends In Implementing The Fund's Transparency Policy
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
At the time of the 2005 Review of the Fund’s Transparency Policy, the Executive Board requested regular updates on trends in implementing the transparency policy. This report provides an overview of recent developments, reflecting information on documents considered by the Board in 2022 and updating the previous annual report on Key Trends. Deeper analysis of these trends is undertaken in the context of periodic reviews of the Fund’s Transparency Policy.
Keywords:
transparency Policy; country document; deletion request; publication rate; IV consultation; Monetary unions; Debt sustainability analysis; Emerging and frontier financial markets; COVID-19; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Middle East and Central Asia; Caribbean; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Cross-Border Payments Integration in Latin America and the Caribbean
Dimitris Drakopoulos
,
Yibin Mu
,
Dmitry Vasilyev
, and
Mauricio Villafuerte
Cross-border payment inefficiencies are a significant barrier to trade both within Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and between LAC and other regions. This paper provides a comprehensive review of historical efforts undertaken by various countries within the LAC region to address these challenges. We also explore the potential of recent financial innovations, such as digital currencies and blockchain technology, to enhance cross-border payments. While new technologies do not substitute for prudent and credible macroeconomic policies, leveraging these technologies can help LAC countries reduce transaction costs and times, thus enhancing economic efficiency and fostering deeper regional and global trade relationships.
Keywords:
Cross-Border Payments; Financial Innovation; International Trade; Economic Integration.; LAC payment infrastructure; payment arrangement; cross-border payment inefficiency; integration in Latin America and the Caribbean; cross-border payments integration; Payment systems; Currencies; Financial inclusion; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Caribbean; Central America; South America; Global; East Asia
Cover IMF Working Papers
Geoeconomic Fragmentation and International Diversification Benefits
Tatsushi Okuda
and
Tomohiro Tsuruga
This paper applies the two-country open-economy model with trade in stocks and bonds of Coeurdacier et al. (2010) to quantify the loss of international diversification benefits for major advanced economies, which have a significant presence in international financial markets, under geoeconomic fragmentation. We perform counterfactual simulations under different hypothetical fragmentation scenarios in which these economies are unable to trade with geopolitically distant countries, as measured by voting disagreement on foreign policy issues at the United Nations General Assembly meetings during 2012-2021. The simulation results imply a potentially significant loss of international diversification benefits of financial openness for the considered advanced economies by limiting trading to partner countries that are geopolitical allies with highly synchronized business cycles.
Keywords:
Geopolitical risk; financial integration; international risk sharing; diversification benefit; output volatility; volatility of Macro-Financial Variables; simulation result; investment efficiency process; Total factor productivity; Business cycles; Consumption; International capital markets; Output gap; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Key Trends in Implementing The Fund’s Transparency Policy
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
At the time of the 2005 Review of the Fund’s Transparency Policy, the Executive Board requested regular updates on trends in implementing the transparency policy. This report provides an overview of recent developments, reflecting information on documents considered by the Board in 2021 and updating the previous annual report on Key Trends. Deeper analysis of these trends is undertaken in the context of periodic reviews of the Fund’s Transparency Policy.
Keywords:
transparency Policy; country policy intention document; deletion request; publication rate; country document; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Monetary unions; COVID-19; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Financial Sector Assessment Program; Middle East and Central Asia; Caribbean; Sub-Saharan Africa; Europe; Asia and Pacific
Cover IMF Working Papers
ASEAN-5: Further Harnessing the Benefits of Regional Integration amid Fragmentation Risks
Nuri Baek
,
Kaustubh Chahande
,
Kodjovi M. Eklou
,
Mr. Tidiane Kinda
,
Vatsal Nahata
,
Umang Rawat
, and
Ara Stepanyan
The ASEAN-5 region, which comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, has benefited substantially from its integration to the world economy, particularly through trade. Rising risks of geoeconomic fragmentation could reverse some gains reaped from globalization over the past decades. In this context, advancing regional integration among ASEAN-5 members has the potential to enhance the region’s resilience against external headwinds. This paper shows that despite sizeable progress, particularly in regional trade integration, there is room to advance financial integration, which also lags trade integration in ASEAN-5. Empirical findings from the paper illustrate that a higher degree of regional financial integration could generate sizeable output gains for the region. Using firm-level data, the paper highlights that digitalization, an area where the region is thriving, can support regional integration by helping firms better integrate into global value chains, with the benefits being stronger for small and medium sized enterprises. The results also suggest that digitalization can help firms move up the value chain through the production of more sophisticated products, often coined as higher export sophistication.
Keywords:
Trade integration; financial integration; digitalization; fragmentation risks; goods export sophistication; firm level result; firm growth; firm Growth; external finance dependence; Financial sector development; Exports; Global; Asia and Pacific
Cover External Sector Report, 2023
External Sector Report, 2023
External Rebalancing in Turbulent Times
International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.

Abstract

Global current account balances—the overall size of headline current account deficits and surpluses—widened for a third consecutive year in 2022. Main drivers were Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the uneven recovery from the pandemic, and the rapid tightening of US monetary policy. Concurrently, the US dollar appreciated substantially, and the uphill capital flow reappeared. IMF’s external sector assessments suggest that the overall size of excess current account deficits and surpluses has remained unchanged since 2021, after declining for several years. This highlights the importance of efforts in both excess surplus and deficit economies to promote external rebalancing. The US dollar appreciation under the “global dollar cycle”, which is driven primarily by global financial risks, has negative spillovers on activity and imports that fall on emerging market economies more severely than on advance economies. More flexible exchange rates and more anchored inflation expectations can mitigate negative spillovers to emerging markets.

Keywords:
Current account; Capital flows; Exchange rate; Global dollar cycle; Spillovers; External sector; dollar appreciation; dollar cycle; commodity exporter; CA deficit; CA surplus; CA gap; Real effective exchange rates; Current account balance; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Global; Africa
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
West African Economic and Monetary Union: Financial Sector Assessment Program-Detailed Assessment Report on the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision: West African Economic and Monetary Union: Financial Sector Assessment Program-Detailed Assessment Report on the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
The BCEAO has conducted a comprehensive reform during the past five years. The regulatory and prudential framework were aligned with international standards and the conditions for supervision have been strengthened, although the efforts must be continued (liquidity ratio/net stable funding ratio and tools for monitoring liquidity, transfers of ownership, acquisitions of holdings, guidelines on nonperforming claims, and anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism—AML-CFT). The transition to Basel III has made it possible to incorporate additional capital requirements, while the rules applicable to credit institutions were upgraded with the 2017 publication of four circulars on governance, risk management, internal supervision, and compliance.
Keywords:
IMF-World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Program; WAMU banking commission; market infrastructure; FSAP assessment's finding; banking landscape; Market risk; Credit; Bank legislation; Credit risk; Operational risk; West Africa; Global; Africa; Maghreb; Central Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Fiscal Crises: The Role of the Public Debt Investor Base and Domestic Financial Markets as Aggravating and Mitigating Factors
Ms. Rina Bhattacharya
,
Kubi Johnson
,
Ms. Mwanza Nkusu
, and
Mengxue Wang
The paper evaluates the key drivers of fiscal crises in a sample of countries from all three income groups—advanced, emerging, and low-income countries, using fiscal crisis data recently developed by the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department. The empirical study focuses on three questions: (1) How does the composition of debtholders (domestic vs. foreign, resident vs. non-resident, or official vs. non-official) affect the probability of a fiscal crisis, after controlling for the level of public debt and other relevant variables?; (2) How does the development and size of the domestic financial sector affect the probability of a fiscal crisis?; and (3) How do changes in the debt level affect the probability of a fiscal crisis, for given compositions of the sovereign debt investor base and different levels of development and size of domestic financial markets? Our findings confirm the benefits of financial development, the danger of heavy reliance on a non-resident investor base, and also that emerging market economies have a lower debt carrying capacity compared to the full sample.
Keywords:
investor base; crisis data; debt carrying capacity; IV robustness; debt level; Financial sector development; Capital markets; Nonbank financial institutions; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Sovereign Debt
Mr. Leonardo Martinez
,
Mr. Francisco Roch
,
Francisco Roldán
, and
Mr. Jeromin Zettelmeyer
This paper surveys the literature on sovereign debt from the perspective of understanding how sovereign debt differs from privately issue debt, and why sovereign debt is deemed safe in some countries but risky in others. The answers relate to the unique power of the sovereign. One the one hand, a sovereign has the power to tax, making debt relatively safe; on the other, it also has control over its territory and most of its assets, making debt enforcement difficult. The paper discusses debt contracts and the sovereign debt market, sovereign debt restructurings, and the empirical and theoretical literatures on the costs and causes of defaults. It describes the adverse impact of sovereign default risk on the issuing countries and what explains this impact. The survey concludes with a discussion of policy options to reduce sovereign risk, including fiscal frameworks that act as commitment devices, state-contingent debt, and independent and credible monetary policy.
Keywords:
Sovereign Debt; Safe Debt; Debt Default; Debt Restructuring; Costs of Sovereign Default; Political Defaults; Fiscal Frameworks; State Contingent Debt; Original Sin; debt contract; short-term debt; market value; sovereign default; capital market exclusion; default decision; default event; payment terms; liquid asset; Securities markets; Fiscal rules; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Key Trends in Implementing the Fund's Transparency Policy
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
This report provides an overview of recent developments in the implementation of the Fund’s Transparency Policy, as required by the Executive Board. It covers documents considered by the Board in 2020 and their respective publication status up to June 2021. To provide some perspective on trends, it compares the implementation of the Fund’s Transparency Policy on the 2020 documents with preceding years.
Keywords:
transparency Policy; article IV; deletion request; reports press releases; country policy intention document; Emerging and frontier financial markets; COVID-19; Monetary unions; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Financial Sector Assessment Program; Middle East and Central Asia; Caribbean; Sub-Saharan Africa; Europe