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Europe > Switzerland

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 23 items for :

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Cover Policy Papers
Review of The Fund’s Capacity Development Strategy—Background Papers
International Monetary Fund. Institute for Capacity Development
This supplement includes five background papers and provides background information on various aspects of capacity development (CD) for the main Board paper, Review of the Fund’s Capacity Development Strategy—Towards a More Flexible, Integrated, and Tailored Model. It is divided into five sections, each consisting of a different background paper. The five sections cover (1) CD Delivery Modalities; (2) Evaluation and Impact; (3) Regional Capacity Development Centers and Field Presence; (4) HR Policies; and (5) Mapping the Fund’s Position vis-à-vis Other CD Providers.
Keywords:
Capacity Development; Technical Assistance; Training; Institution; Priorities; Evaluation; Impact; Field Presence; Regional Capacity Development Training Center; CD Strategy Review; CD department; CD provider; delivery modality; CD staffing model; RCDC CD Delivery; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Comparative advantage; Training and development in revenue administration; Global; South America; Asia and Pacific; Sub-Saharan Africa; Maghreb
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Libya: Technical Assistance Report-Review the Installation/Implementation Status of Modules/Functionalities of ASYCUDA World at Libyan Customs Administration
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
Middle East Technical Assistance Center (METAC) has arranged a two-phase capacity development (CD) for the Libyan Customs Administration (LCA) of the Libyan Ministry of Finance. The purpose of this mission is to assess the development status of the ASYCUDA World (AW) prototype piloted in the Port of Tripoli and identify areas of short-term CD support enabling LCA to fully exploit the AW functionalities. It will be followed by a study tour to promote peer learning and exchange of best practices in the f ield of customs in particular digitalization issues, through the METAC region.
Keywords:
AW functionality; AW prototype; AW implementation team; implementation status; LCA authorities; Customs administration core functions; Tariffs; Duties; Imports; Middle East; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Stabilizing Role of Net Foreign Asset Returns
Gustavo Adler
and
Mr. Daniel Garcia-Macia
With the rapid growth of countries' foreign asset and liability positions over the last two decades, financial returns on those positions ('NFA returns') have become material drivers of current accounts and net stock positions. This paper documents the relative importance of NFA return versus trade channels in driving NFA dynamics, for a sample of 52 economies over 1990-2015. While persistent trade imbalances have been a strong force leading to diverging NFA positions, NFA returns have played an important stabilizing role, mitigating NFA divergence. The stabilizing role of NFA returns primarily reflects the response of asset prices, rather than yield differentials or exchange rates. There is also evidence of heterogeneity in the speed of NFA adjustment, with emerging market economies adjusting more rapidly than advanced economies, and reserve-currency countries adjusting more slowly than others. The paper also documents the role of NFA returns as insurance against domestic and global income shocks, with a focus on reserve-currency countries.
Keywords:
WP; NFA return; net foreign assets; international investment position; valuation changes; return differential; NFA position; valuation change; NFA dynamics; Asset prices; Trade balance; Insurance; Income shocks; Exchange rates; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Global Trade and the Dollar
Ms. Emine Boz
,
Ms. Gita Gopinath
, and
Mikkel Plagborg-Møller
We document that the U.S. dollar exchange rate drives global trade prices and volumes. Using a newly constructed data set of bilateral price and volume indices for more than 2,500 country pairs, we establish the following facts: 1) The dollar exchange rate quantitatively dominates the bilateral exchange rate in price pass-through and trade elasticity regressions. U.S. monetary policy induced dollar fluctuations have high pass-through into bilateral import prices. 2) Bilateral non-commodities terms of trade are essentially uncorrelated with bilateral exchange rates. 3) The strength of the U.S. dollar is a key predictor of rest-of-world aggregate trade volume and consumer/producer price inflation. A 1 percent U.S. dollar appreciation against all other currencies in the world predicts a 0.6–0.8 percent decline within a year in the volume of total trade between countries in the rest of the world, controlling for the global business cycle. 4) Using a novel Bayesian semiparametric hierarchical panel data model, we estimate that the importing country’s share of imports invoiced in dollars explains 15 percent of the variance of dollar pass-through/elasticity across country pairs. Our findings strongly support the dominant currency paradigm as opposed to the traditional Mundell-Fleming pricing paradigms.
Keywords:
WP; software package; U.S. dollar; exchange rate; Bayesian semiparametrics; bilateral trade; dominant currency; exchange rate pass-through; hierarchical Bayes; panel data; trade elasticity; invoicing share; dollar pass-through; pass-through coefficient; log growth; price pass-through; Exchange rates; Currencies; Exchange rate adjustments; Import prices; Imports; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Kingdom of the Netherlands-Netherlands: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This Selected Issues paper focuses on a steady increase in current account surpluses in ”Surplus 3” countries—Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland—since the mid-1990s. In Germany and the Netherlands, nonfinancial corporations seem to be behind the rising surpluses. In these countries, increasing corporate profits have not been converted into dividends, keeping a lid on consumption. In Switzerland, household savings seem to explain the bulk of the current account surplus: both mandatory and voluntary savings have been on an increasing trend since 2000. Trending net contributions to pension funds since 2000 and rising equity contribution for housing purchases are likely drivers.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; current account surplus; NICs; surplus; income; elasticity assumption; income effect; inflation expectation; elasticity case; labor tax wedge; lending-borrowing balance; substitution effect; government savings-investment balance; current account dynamics; savings-investment surplus; Current account surpluses; Labor supply; Current account; Real effective exchange rates; Trade balance; Global; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
United Kingdom: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This paper aims to provide European Union (EU), while recognizing that the choice of whether to remain in the EU is for U.K. voters to make and that their decisions will reflect both economic and noneconomic factors. The question of EU membership is both a political and an economic issue, and the referendum has sparked a wide-ranging debate on the United Kingdom’s role in the EU. Given the range of plausible alternative arrangements with the EU, the number of channels by which countries could be affected and the range of possible effects on the United Kingdom and other economies are broad.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; EU membership; UK economy; single market; EU country; EU migrant; EU budget; UK-EU trade; EU regulation; EU economy; EU directive; EU immigrant; Exports; Migration; Tariffs; Income; Foreign direct investment; Global; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Switzerland: Selected Issues Paper
International Monetary Fund
The paper assesses the competitiveness of Swiss exporters, and shows that the effect of nominal exchange rate on trade balance depends on the degree of exchange rate pass-through and on trade elasticities. It highlights that the degree of exchange rate pass-through should also be factored in monetary policy decisions. The authorities are considering legislative changes to strengthen macroprudential oversight by supporting the mutual cooperation between Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and Swiss National Bank (SNB) over the financial stability. The scope of the too-big-to-fail (TBTF) proposal should also be broadened to address systematic risk.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; FINMA Board; supervision; information gathering power; SNB work; exchange rate pass-through; department II; FINMA vis-à-vis; auditing power; Financial sector stability; Exports; Exchange rates; Legal support in revenue administration; Systemic risk; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Switzerland: 2011 Article IV Consultation: Staff Report; Public Information Notice on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for the Switzerland.
International Monetary Fund
Although progress has been made in strengthening the Swiss economy, systemic risks posed by large banks as well as revisions to the macroprudential framework are still in train. The authorities welcomed the too-big-to-fail (TBTF) legislation and intervention of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) on strengthening financial sector stability, and stressed the need of a strong macroprudential framework and a legal framework with regard to crisis prevention. The authorities supported adherence to the Swiss debt brake rule, and emphasized that sustainability of public finances should be further improved.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; FINMA; foreign direct investment; appreciation; capital; GDP; monetary policy stance; staff's assessment; net trade contribution; federal budget; information exchange; Mortgages; Exports; Income; Insurance companies; Global; Middle East
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Euro’s Effecton Trade Imbalances
Mr. Helge Berger
and
Volker Nitsch
When does trade become a one-way relationship? We study bilateral trade balances for a sample of 18 European countries over the period from 1948 through 2008. We find that, with the introduction of the euro, trade imbalances among euro area members widened considerably, even after allowing for permanent asymmetries in trade competitiveness within pairs of countries or in the overall trade competitiveness of individual countries. This is consistent with indications that pair-wise trade tends to be more balanced when nominal exchange rates are flexible. Intra-euro area imbalances also seem to have become more persistent with the introduction of the euro, some of which is linked to labor market inflexibility. Reviewing the direction of imbalances, we find that bilateral trade surpluses are decreasing in the real exchange rate, decreasing in growth differentials, and increasing in the relative volatility of national business cycles. Finally, countries with relatively higher fiscal deficits and less flexible labor and product markets exhibit systematically lower trade surpluses than others.
Keywords:
WP; trade imbalance; member country; dependent variable; imbalances; trade balance; trade surplus; trade deficit; euro; EMU; European integration; product market; × EMU; exchange rate variability; area trade; exchange rate volatility; euro area member; Plurilateral trade; Trade surpluses; Exchange rates; Trade deficits
Cover IMF Working Papers
International Stock Returns and Market Integration: A Regional Perspective
Mr. Marco Del Negro
and
Mr. Robin Brooks
We investigate the relative importance of country and industry effects in international stock returns, with the innovation that we decompose country effects into region and within-region country effects. We divide the global stock market into the Americas, Asia, and Europe and find that most of the variation explained by country effects is actually due to region effects. Over time, these region effects have fallen. Within regions, however, only in Europe has segmentation declined, while it has increased elsewhere. Europe is also the only region where industry effects are now robustly more important than country effects.
Keywords:
WP; TMT firm; U.S. dollar; mean absolute deviations; dummy variable; stock portfolio; Diversification; risk; international financial markets; industrial structure; region effect; portfolio manager; Stock markets; Stocks; Market capitalization; Capital account; North American Free Trade Agreement; Europe; Global; Asia and Pacific; Western Europe; Southeast Asia