Europe > Ireland
Abstract
Los paÃses miembros del Fondo Monetario Internacional colaboran para asegurar que los regÃmenes cambiarios funcionen ordenadamente y para fomentar la estabilidad del sistema cambiario, reconociendo que el objetivo fundamental del sistema monetario internacional es facilitar el intercambio de bienes, servicios y capital y sostener un crecimiento económico sólido. Este trabajo examina la estabilidad del sistema cambiario en su globalidad mediante el análisis de los resultados macroeconómicos (inflación, crecimiento, crisis) en el marco de distintos regÃmenes cambiarios, los efectos del régimen cambiario elegido en el resto del sistema (ajuste externo, integración comercial, flujos de capital) y las posibles fuentes de tensión para el sistema monetario internacional.
Abstract
The member countries of the International Monetary Fund collaborate to try to assure orderly exchange arrangements and promote a stable system of exchange rates, recognizing that the essential purpose of the international monetary system is to facilitate the exchange of goods, services, and capital, and to sustain sound economic growth. The paper reviews the stability of the overall system of exchange rates by examining macroeconomic performance (inflation, growth, crises) under alternative exchange rate regimes; implications of exchange rate regime choice for interaction with the rest of the system (external adjustment, trade integration, capital flows); and potential sources of stress to the international monetary system.
Abstract
Ten years after regaining independence, the Baltic Countries--Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania--are expected to be invited to join the European Union (EU) and NATO in 2004. This paper provides a macroeconomic perspective on the Baltics' remarkable economic success to date and of the fiscal challenges that the Baltics face in joining the EU and NATO. The authors offer guidance in this regard by deriving some principles on the appropriate medium-term fiscal stance for the Baltics based on theory and empirical evidence. They examine the experience of countries that acceded to the EU earlier-Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain-and develop three medium-term analytical frameworks to illustrate the fiscal tensions and trade-offs. Their primary advice supports the Baltic authorities' decision to maintain prudent fiscal policy by balancing their budgets over the economic cycle. Curtailing nonpriority spending may be politically difficult, but the Baltic countries are well placed to meet such challenges, and the benefits-more efficient public spending, enhanced growth prospects, and accelerated real convergence with the EU-make this effort worthwhile.
Abstract
Tax harmonization is an integral part of completing the single European market. Expansion of the single market to the European Economic Area, and eventually to some Eastern European countries, suggests that the EC approach to tax harmonization will apply more broadly than origninally envisaged. This study considers these issues and examines the case for harmonizing taxation of commodities and capital income in the single European market; principles of international taxation; the impact of harmonizing value-added taxes; and EC Structural Funds.
Abstract
This paper provides a survey of some issues concerning the evolution of the European Monetary System (EMS) in the context of increasingly integrated financial markets. It reviews the objectives of the EMS, its institutional structure, its perceived impact on key macroeconomic variables, and some criticisms of its current arrangements. It also describes the 1992 program to unify, inter alia, financial markets and then discusses the pressures that a more integrated financial marketplaces on country authorities and on financial firms. The prospective structural changes in European financial markets raise the issues of whether and how the EMS can continue to constitute a zone of monetary stability. Although the growing integration of financial markets is likely to increase the interdependence between monetary policies in the EMS countries, a nominal anchor could still be maintained by having the Bundesbank continue to lead the way on the course of monetary policy, or by formulating monetary policy on the basis of an index of traded goods prices, or through more far-ranging coordination of monetary policies.
Abstract
This paper examines the types of market-related hedging instruments that could potentially be useful to indebted developing countries as they seek to manage the financial risks created by variability of the prices of external assets and commodities. The paper reviews the variability in interest rates, exchange rates, and prices of primary commodities and then analyzes the effects of this variability on the domestic and external performance of indebted developing countries. Market-related hedging instruments that are accessible to indebted developing countries are also examined.
Abstract
This chapter discusses principles and consequences of the common agricultural policy (CAP) of the European Community (EC). It shows that agricultural pricing policies aimed at supporting farm incomes were already in place in EC member countries before the inception of the CAP; indeed, in the presence of these policies, the CAP was a logical consequence of the extension of the common market to the agricultural sector. Thus, the flaws of the CAP can be traced back to national policies and attitudes toward agriculture. Recognition of the burden of agricultural support on the rest of the economy, as well as the growing budgetary costs, has elicited a greater public interest in the CAP. Equally, the trade frictions caused by export subsidies have underlined the CAP's international implications. For these reasons, the member states appear more determined than hitherto to bring agricultural expenditure under control. Given the wider effects of the CAP both on EC economies and the international community, it is to be hoped that current efforts at reform will be successful.