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Asia and Pacific > Thailand

You are looking at 1 - 4 of 4 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination x
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Cover Departmental Papers
Navigating External Shocks in Southeast Asia's Emerging Markets: Key Lessons and Challenges in Applying the IMF’s Integrated Policy Framework
Corinne C Delechat
,
Umang Rawat
, and
Ara Stepanyan
As relatively small open economies, South-East Asian emerging markets (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand or ASEAN-4) are highly susceptible to external shocks—both financial and real—that could induce large capital flows and exchange rate volatility that could lead to foreign exchange market dysfunction. With the exception of Bank Negara Malaysia, ASEAN-4 central banks mostly have flexible inflation-targeting frameworks for monetary policy implementation. Their main policy objectives include medium-term price stability, sustainable economic growth, and financial stability. Central Banks in ASEAN-4 economies have been early pilots in the operationalization of the IMF’s Integrated Policy Framework (IPF) in 2022-23, given their experience in using multiple policy tools besides the monetary policy rate, including macroprudential measures, foreign exchange intervention (FXI), and capital flow management measures, to achieve their multiple objectives. They have welcomed the IPF as a systematic, frictions-based approach to analyze the use of these multiple tools to manage trade-offs across policy objectives. This paper takes stock of the experience from these pilots, both from the perspective of country authorities and of IMF country teams. It aims at distilling key lessons, which could be used to inform broader IPF operationalization. The IPF conceptual framework and a related quantitative model were used to assess policy trade-offs in ASEAN-4 in the event of adverse external shocks. These applications reaffirmed the importance of using monetary policy to address persistent inflationary pressures stemming from real shocks and allowing the exchange rate to act as a shock absorber. However, a complementary use of FXI could improve trade-offs between price, financial, and output stability when economies are faced with large and financial shocks that result in abrupt spikes in uncovered interest rate parity premia resulting in inefficiently tight financial conditions that could hurt growth or risking to de-anchor inflation expectations. The IPF pilots also highlighted some challenges faced when operationalizing IPF principles, notably regarding the assessment of frictions and shocks that might justify the use of FXI. In particular, country teams at times lacked sufficient information to adequately assess the extent of frictions. Moreover, the time-varying nature of IPF frictions and the non-linear effects of shocks make it difficult to assess situations when benefits of a complementary use of FXI would overweigh its costs.
Keywords:
ASEAN; foreign- exchange intervention; Inflation targeting; Integrated policy framework; capital flows; IPF pilot; market dysfunction; IMF country team; IPF model; Policy mix; IMF seminar participant; Currency markets; Exchange rates; Inflation; Southeast Asia; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Optimal Price Indices for Targeting Inflation Under Incomplete Markets
Rahul Anand
and
Mr. Eswar S Prasad
In models with complete markets, targeting core inflation enables monetary policy to maximize welfare by replicating the flexible price equilibrium. We develop a two-sector two-good new-Keynesian model to study the optimal choice of price index in markets with financial frictions. We find that, in the presence of financial frictions, a welfare-maximizing central bank should adopt flexible headline inflation targeting a target for headline CPI inflation with some weight on the output gap. These results are particularly relevant for emerging markets, where the share of food expenditures in total consumption expenditures is high and a large proportion of consumers are credit constrained.
Keywords:
WP; headline inflation; Inflation targeting; Monetary Policy Framework; Core Inflation; Financial Frictions; Liquidity Constraints; headline inflation inflation targeting; consumption process; core inflation inflation targeting; rule allocation; sticky price; food price inflation; elasticity of substitution; inflation targeting price index; representative core inflation targeting country; headline inflation targeting rule; targeting consumption; core inflation targeting regime; Inflation; Consumption; Sticky prices; Price indexes; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The IMF Approach to Economic Stabilization
Mr. Miguel A Savastano
and
Mr. Michael Mussa
This paper explains the IMF approach to economic stabilization. It argues that a Fund-supported program is a process, comprising six broadly defined phases, that evolves along a multiplicity of potential pathways. The paper discusses the three-pronged approach to stabilization at the core of all IMF-supported programs, stresses the iterative character of “financial programming,” and explains the rationale for setting quantitative performance criteria for fiscal and monetary policy in IMF-supported arrangements. A main theme is that IMF-supported programs contain a great deal of flexibility to respond both to differences in circumstances and to changes in conditions in individual cases.
Keywords:
WP; IMF program; IMF approach; IMF conditionality; IMF-supported program; IMF arrangement; IMF staff; IMF-supported programs; economic stabilization; quantitative approach; financial support; IMF prescription; IMF mandate; heterogenous IMF membership; IMF surveillance; expiring IMF program; IMF support; Domestic credit; International reserves; Monetary base; Exchange rates; Eastern Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
Policy Responses to External Imbalances in Emerging Market Economies: Further Empirical Results
Luis Carranza
and
Mr. Chorng-Huey Wong
A bivariate vector-autoregression (VAR) model is used to test causal relations between the current account and the capital account in four emerging market economies. The results show that high capital mobility could be a major cause of current account instability. Therefore, macroeconomic policy to restore external balance must deal directly with capital inflows. The paper recommends making nominal exchange rate sufficiently flexible to avoid inconsistencies between short-run and long-run real exchange rates; complementing credit tightening by fiscal restraint to reduce interest rate differentials; and strengthening reforms and surveillance of the financial system to prevent banks from excessive risk taking.
Keywords:
WP; deficit; balance; nominal exchange rate; capital inflows; emerging market economies; external imbalances; exchange rate policy; policy designs; causality test; current account position; increase in capital account surplus; current account response; exchange rate volatility; capital account imbalance; capital account shock; interest rate differential; current account result; current account equilibrium; flexible exchange rate regime; exchange rate system; responses to shock; Capital account; Current account; Real exchange rates; Current account deficits