Narrow Your Choices

Refine By Topic

Refine By Series

Refine By Language

Refine By Date

—

Refine By IMF Taxonomy

Refine By JEL Taxonomy

Refine by LOC Taxonomy

Refine By THEMA Taxonomy

  • Print
  • Save

Europe > Slovenia, Republic of

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 37 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Currency; Foreign exchange x
Clear All Modify Search
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Re-Emerging Privilege of Euro Area Membership
Mr. Johannes Wiegand
When the euro was introduced in 1998, one objective was to create an alternative global reserve currency that would grant benefits to euro area countries similar to the U.S. dollar’s “exorbitant privliege”: i.e., a boost to the perceived quality of euro denominated assets that would increase demand for such assets and reduce euro area members’ funding costs. This paper uses risk perceptions as revelaed in investor surveys to extract a measure of privilege asscociated with euro membership, and traces its evolution over time. It finds that in the 2000s, euro area assets benefited indeed from a significant perceptions premium. While this premium disappeared in the wake of the euro crisis, it has recently returned, although at a reduced size. The paper also produces time-varying estimates of the weights that investors place on macro-economic fundmentals in their assessments of country risk. It finds that the weights of public debt, the current account and real growth increased considerably during the euro crisis, and that these shifts have remained in place even after the immediate financial stress subsided.
Keywords:
WP; euro; area membership; euro area; euro crisis; exorbitant privlege; investor perceptions; time dummy; investor perception; governance framework; Euro premium; euro adoption; area privilege; membership premium; Credit ratings; Unemployment rate; Currencies; Exchange rate arrangements; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
Assessing Competitiveness Using Industry Unit Labor Costs: An Application to Slovakia
International Monetary Fund
Conceptual ambiguities and statistical weaknesses hamper the assessment of external competitiveness. The term competitiveness, while applied extensively, is often imprecisely defined, which can result in analytical errors and mistaken policy advice. Furthermore, aggregate statistical measures of competitiveness in terms of exchange rate misalignment can be biased. To address these issues, this paper makes two contributions. First, it clarifies the external competitiveness concept, highlighting the dichotomy between productivity-driven long-run growth and short-run deviations from the underlying growth trajectory, which can be related to exchange rate misalignment. Second, it develops a disaggregated statistical approach for examining competitiveness based on unit labor costs at the three digit industry level in a group of comparable countries. The case of Slovakia is used to illustrate these concepts, but the analytical insights have general application.
Keywords:
WP; Slovakia; cost; export share; competitiveness; unit labor cost; exchange rate; price level; paper estimates unit labor cost norm; disaggregated ULC; ULC dev.; industry unit labor cost; ULC relative; Competition; Exchange rates; Productivity; Global competitiveness; Export performance; Global
Cover Policy Papers
2011 Triennial Surveillance Review - External Report on Interviews with Country Authorities
International Monetary Fund
Report prepared by Jack Boorman, Former Director of the Policy Development and Review Department and Teresa Ter-Minassian, former Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department at the IMF: This report summarizes the views of a representative sample of country authorities on IMF surveillance.
Keywords:
PP; Teresa Ter-Minassian; body; Fund; authority; G20 industrial nations; a number of country representative; a number of authority; fund staff; member government; country category; fund advice; country representative; countries' authorities; policy challenge; government's decision; Early warning systems; Financial Sector Assessment Program; Financial sector; Exchange rates; Exchange rate policy; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Borrowing Agreement with the Bank of Slovenia
International Monetary Fund
In light of the multilateral effort to ensure the adequacy of the financial resources available to the International Monetary Fund (the “Fund”), and with a view to supporting the Fund’s ability to provide timely and effective balance of payments assistance to its members, the Bank of Slovenia agrees to lend to the Fund an SDR-denominated amount up to the equivalent of EUR 280 million, on the terms and conditions set out in this paper.
Keywords:
PP; fund; agreement; amount; SDR; fund member; indebtedness to the Bank of Slovenia; fund's indebtedness; Interest payments; Freely usable currencies; Exchange rate arrangements
Cover IMF Working Papers
Sustainable Real Exchange Rates in the New Eu Member States: What Did the Great Recession Change?
Ms. Katerina Smídková
,
Jan Babecky
, and
Mr. Ales Bulir
The Great Recession affected export and import patterns in our sample countries, and these changes, coupled with a more volatile external environment, have profound impact on our estimates of real exchange rate misalignments and projections of sustainable real exchange rates. We find that real misalignments in several countries with pegged exchange rates and excessive external liabilities widened relative to earlier estimates. While countries with balanced net trade positions are expected to continue to experience appreciation during 2010-2014, several currencies are likely to require real depreciation to maintain sustainable net external debt. Our estimates point to somewhat larger disequilibria than those of IMF country teams, however, any estimates of equilibrium exchange rates are subject to sizable uncertainty.
Keywords:
WP; country-specific FDI elasticity; FDI inflow; Foreign direct investment; new EU member states; sustainable exchange rates; debt target; SRER estimate; IMF team; FDI elasticity; SRER projection; computed SRER interval; elasticity of export; nontradable-sector FDI; Real exchange rates; Trade balance; Exports; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Current Account Imbalances in the Southern Euro Area
Ms. Florence Jaumotte
and
Piyaporn Sodsriwiboon
The paper examines the causes, consequences, and potential cures of the large current account deficits in the Southern Euro Area (SEA). These were mostly driven by a decline in private saving rates. But it was the European Monetary Union and the Euro, which enabled these countries to maintain investment rates, and thus run larger current account deficits, by improving their access to the international pool of saving. The paper finds that the deficits in SEA in 2008 were larger than can be explained by fundamentals, though the situation varies substantially across countries. It also finds that although the global financial crisis has started to force some unwinding, the current account deficits are expected to remain high in the medium run, though again with substantial variation across countries. The paper argues these large external deficits pose risks to the economy and therefore matter, even in a currency union, and discusses some policy options to reduce them.
Keywords:
WP; euro; deficit
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund
This Selected Issues paper for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) reports that GDP per capita in BiH is similar to that in neighboring Balkan countries. BiH risks are falling behind rather than catching up with other transition economies in terms of its economic development. This could delay the process of convergence to and integration with the European Union, including its ambitions to eventually adopt the euro. Accelerated structural reforms and macroeconomic stability remain key to achieving higher and sustained growth rates.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; current account; Bosnia-Herzegovina; export; exchange rate; export growth; inflation performance; BiH's inflation figure; BiH risk; rising prices; growth dynamics; CA gap; BIH's inflation; Inflation; Exports; Real exchange rates; Export performance; Consumer price indexes; Global; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
Inflation Differentials in the EU: A Common (Factors) Approach with Implications for EU8 Euro Adoption Prospects
International Monetary Fund
This paper explores inflation determinants within the EU and implications for new members' euro adoption plans. Factor analysis partitions observed inflation in EU25 countries into common-origin and country-specific (idiosyncratic) components. Cross-country differences in common-origin inflation within the EU are found to depend on gaps in the initial price level, changes in the nominal effective exchange rate, the quality of institutions, and the economy's flexibility. Idiosyncratic inflation is generally small in magnitude. Nonetheless, the results show that country-specific shocks have systematically pushed down headline inflation, potentially influencing the assessment of compliance with the Maastricht inflation criterion.
Keywords:
WP; country; price level; common-origin inflation; inflation differential
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Czech Republic, Republic of Estonia, Hungary, Republic of Latvia, Republic of Lithuania, Republic of Poland, Slovak Republic, and Republic of Slovenia: Export Structure and Credit Growth
International Monetary Fund
Of the new members entering the European Union (EU) in May 2004, several had achieved a decade of impressive export growth, expanding significantly their shares of world markets. The empirical analysis shows that over the period 1994–2004, quality and technology upgrading associated with the structural transformation were, indeed, also associated with increased market share. Several bivariate relationships to motivate an empirical framework for analyzing the evolution of market shares are ascribed. It gives the basic regressions explaining the changes in market shares for 58 countries.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; market share; credit growth; market share gain; product quality; export share; bank soundness; Bank credit; Credit; Bank soundness; Loans; Real interest rates; Baltics; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Capital Account Liberalization, Capital Flow Patterns, and Policy Responses in the EU's New Member States
Ms. Zsofia Arvai
This paper discusses the experience of the EU's eight new member countries (EU8) between 1995 and 2003 when the bulk of capital account liberalization took place, focusing on interest-rate-sensitive portfolio flows and financial flows. It takes stock of the lessons from capital flow patterns to draw policy conclusions. There were two distinct groups in terms of the speed of capital account liberalization: rapid liberalizers and cautious liberalizers. The speed of disinflation and the level of public debt were major determinants of the size of interest-rate-sensitive portfolio inflows. Monetary and exchange rate policies were the main instruments used to react to large interest-sensitive inflows, whereas fiscal tightening was seldom used as a direct reaction to inflows.
Keywords:
WP; monetary policy; portfolio inflow; interest rate differential; central bank; debt management; EU accession; capital flows; capital account liberalization; transition country; transmission mechanism; liberalization strategy; candidate country; country authorities' agenda; EU candidate country; market share; country's liberalization strategy; government securities market; Central European country; Capital account; Capital inflows; Baltics