Front Matter Page
Robert Flood
Editor and Committee Chair
Ratna Sahay and Eswar S. Prasad
Co-Editors
Sean M. Culhane
Assistant Editor
Rafael Romeu
Research Assistant
Rosalind Oliver
Administrative Coordinator
Editorial Committee
Brian Aitken
Sharmini Coorey
Tito Cordelia
Atish R. Ghosh
Olivier Jeanne
Laura Kodres
Eduardo Ley
Donald J. Mathieson
Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti
Sunil Sharma
The objective of IMF Staff Papers is to publish high quality research produced by IMF staff and invited guests on a variety of topics of interest to a broad audience that includes academics and policymakers in IMF member countries. The papers selected for publication in the journal are subject to an extensive review process using both internal and external referees. IMF Staff Papers also welcomes outside comments, criticisms, and interesting replications of published work. The views presented in published papers are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Board or of the IMF.
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EDITOR’S NOTE
The Editor invites from contributors outside the IMF brief comments (not more than 1,000 words) on published articles in IMF Staff Papers. These comments should be addressed to the Editor, who will forward them to the author of the original article for reply. Both the comments and the reply will be considered for publication.
The data underlying articles published in IMF Staff Papers are available on the journal’s website (http://www.imf.org/staffpapers). Readers are invited to use these data to expand on the material in the articles, and the journal will consider publishing such work.
Front Matter Page
© 2001 by the International Monetary Fund
International Standard Serial Number: ISSN 1020-7635
This serial publication is catalogued as follows:
International Monetary Fund
IMF staff papers — International Monetary Fund. v. 1-Feb. 1950-[Washington] International Monetary Fund.
v. tables, diagrs. 26 cm.
Three no. a year, 1950-1977: four no. a year, 1978-
Indexes:
Vols. 1-27. 1950-80, I v.
ISSN 1020-7635 = IMF staff papers — International Monetary Fund.
1. Foreign exchange—Periodicals.
2. Commerce—Periodicals.
3. Currency question—Periodicals.
HG3810.15 332.082 53-35483
In statistical matter throughout this issue,
dots (…) indicate that the data are not available;
a dash (—) indicates that the figure is zero or less than half the final digit shown, or that the item does not exist;
a single dot (.) indicates decimals;
a comma (,) separates thousands and millions;
“billion” means a thousand million; and “trillion” means a thousand billion;
a short dash (-) is used between years or months (for example, 1998-99 or January-June) to indicate a total of the years or months inclusive of the beginning and ending years or months;
a slash (/) is used between years (for example, 1998/99) to indicate a fiscal year or a crop year; and
components of tables may not add to totals shown because of rounding.
The term “country,” as used in this publication, may not refer to a territorial entity that is a state as understood by international law and practice; the term may also cover some territorial entities that are not states but for which statistical data are maintained and provided internationally on a separate and independent basis.
Design: Luisa Menjivar-Macdonald and Sanaa Elaroussi