Internationalization of Finance and Changing Vulnerabilities in Emerging and Developing Economies
After a series of crises with severe economic and social consequences in the 1990s and early 2000s, emerging and developing economies (EDEs) have become even more closely integrated into what is widely recognized as an inherently unstable international financial system. Both policies in these countries and a highly accommodating global financial environment have played a role. Not only have their traditional cross-border linkages been deepened and external balance sheets expanded rapidly, but also foreign presence in their domestic credit, bond, equity and property markets has reached unprecedented levels. (more…)
Statement to the Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 24, Washington DC
Weak and uncertain global economic conditions
Before the world economy has been able to fully recover from the crisis that began more than five years ago, there is a widespread fear that we may be poised for yet another crisis, this time in emerging economies. (more…)
Crisis Mismanagement in the United States and Europe: Impact on Developing Countries and Longer-Term Consequences
There are two major failings in policy interventions in the crisis in the US and Europe: the reluctance to remove the debt overhang through timely, orderly and comprehensive restructuring and the shift to fiscal austerity after an initial reflation. These have resulted in excessive reliance on monetary means with central banks entering uncharted policy waters, including zero-bound interest rates and the acquisition of long-term public and private bonds. (more…)
Waving Or Drowning: Developing Countries After The Financial Crisis
Not only has the “Great Recession” led to a “Great Slowdown” in developing countries, but also their longer-term growth prospects are clouded by global structural imbalances and fragilities that culminated in the current crisis. (more…)
In recent years financial policies in both industrial and developing countries have put increased emphasis on the market mechanism. Liberalization was partly a response to developments in the financial markets themselves: as these markets innovated to get round the restrictions placed on them, governments chose to throw in the towel. More important, however, governments embraced liberalization as a doctrine. (more…)
The State of the World Economy – South Centre Statement to the UN High Level Thematic Debate on the State of the World Economy.
The South Centre’s Chief Economist, Dr. Yilmaz Akyüz, took part as a speaker at the UN General Assembly’s two-day Thematic Debate on the State of the World Economy, held in New York on 17-18 May 2012. Below is the statement he presented to one of the four roundtables at the conference. (more…)
Statement to the UN High Level Thematic Debate on the State Of the World Economy, New York
1. Global economic conditions continue to have a strong bearing on production, trade and investment in developing economies (DEs). In this respect the current landscape is not very encouraging. After three years of recovery the world economy still remains highly fragile. (more…)
Summary overview of the recent development of the agenda of financial reform.
A cursory read of the FSB’s report on progress in the implementation of G20’s reform agenda indicates how vast the agenda has become. Agreement on the international agenda is being accompanied by measures implementing this agreement at national level and at the level of the EU. (more…)
Capital Flows to Developing Countries in a Historical Perspective: Will the Current Boom End With a Bust?.
The paper argues that the policy of quantitative easing and close-to-zero interest rates in advanced economies, notably the US, are generating a surge in speculative capital flows to developing countries in search for yield and creating bubbles in foreign exchange, asset, credit and commodity markets. (more…)
Why The IMF And The International Monetary System Need More Than Cosmetic Reform.
This Research Paper argues that the G20 agenda misses some of the key issues that need to be dealt with in order to effectively reform the international monetary system so as to avert future global financial crises. The missing issues include enforceable exchange rate and adjustment obligations, orderly sovereign debt workout mechanisms and the reform of the international reserves system. (more…)
A South Centre report suggests the reforms needed in the global financial and monetary system.
The current turmoil in the world economy has demonstrated once again that the international arrangements lack mechanisms to prevent financial crises with global repercussions. Not only are effective rules and regulations absent to bring inherently unstable international financial market and capital flows under control, (more…)
A South Centre report argues that the IMF should focus on crisis prevention not crisis lending.
The record of the IMF in preventing financial instability and crises leaves much to be desired. The period since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods arrangements has seen repeated gyrations in exchange rates of major currencies, persistent and growing trade imbalances, recurrent balance-of-payments, debt and financial crises with global repercussions in both emerging and mature economies. (more…)
