This paper analyzes the main sources of fiscal risks, including from unexpected changes in macroeconomic variables and banking crises, which can have major consequences for countries' fiscal and public debt sustainability. It builds on an overview of existing practices in a wide range of countries to provide practical suggestions on how to promote disclosure of such risks and on risk mitigation and management. The paper was written in response to requests from IMF member countries for advi...

Why the dollar is—and will remain—the dominant global currencyThe U.S. dollar's dominance seems under threat. The near collapse of the U.S. financial system in 2008–2009, political paralysis that has blocked effective policymaking, and emerging competitors such as the Chinese renminbi have heightened speculation about the dollar’s looming displacement as the main reserve currency. Yet, as The Dollar Trap powerfully argues, the financial crisis, a dysfuncti...

Why is China booming while the American economy lags?Despite a globally challenging economic environment, production in China has grown significantly every year, for the past twenty years. America's GDP, by contrast, fell during the serious recession of 2008-9, and is now struggling to achieve even tepid growth. Why should this be?Over the last decade, economic thought and attitudes in the West have increasingly diverged from the underlying views in China, and significant con...

Over the past decade, Indonesia has developed into an important regional and global economy, as well as an active participant in the G20. The chapters in this book document the substantial improvements in the quality of macroeconomic policy that Indonesia has achieved, while also clearly laying out an agenda of measures that should be taken to safeguard these gains and further lower vulnerabilities going forward. Rather than just demonstrating progress in key macroeconomic indicators, the ...

A penetrating critique tracing how under-regulated trading between European and U.S. banks led to the 2008 financial crisis—with a prescription for preventing another meltdownThere have been numerous books examining the 2008 financial crisis from either a U.S. or European perspective. Tamim Bayoumi is the first to explain how the Euro crisis and U.S. housing crash were, in fact, parasitically intertwined. Starting in the 1980s, Bayoumi outlines the cu...

IMF-supported adjustment programs aim to restore economic growth, while bringing about a sustainable balance of payments position. Achievement of these goals requires coordinated use of a variety of policy meansures, including monetary and fiscal, exchange rate, external debt management, and structural policies, which affect capacity use and productive potential. This book, edited by Jeffrey M. Davis, provides an introductory review of some of the policy issues in each of these areas.

Trade finance has long been an important component of international financial flows. Firms in emerging market economies, in particular, rely heavily on bank-financed trade credits to support their export and import activities. This book examines why and how much trade finance flows decline during financial crises, with case studies of several Asian and Latin American countries. The authors draw from the analysis to present options for mitigating trade finance declines in the event of future c...

The first journalism textbook for reporters who cover finance and economics in developing and transitional countries, Covering Globalization is an essential guide to the pressing topics of our times. Written by economists from the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well as journalists who have worked for Dow Jones, the Financial Times, the New York Times, Fortune, and Reuters—and with an introduction by Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz—this inv...

Global Economic Prospects 2010: Crisis, Finance and Growth presents the World Bank's latest short-term forecasts. In addition, the report presents evidence that the financial boom played a critical role in the growth boom experienced by developing countries between 2003 and 2007, but that tighter conditions in the future are expected to result in weaker growth over the next 5 to 10 years.The report warns that while the worst of the financial crisis may be over, the global recovery is fra...

In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 governments worldwide undertook massive fiscal interventions to stave off what otherwise would have likely been a system-wide financial and economic meltdown. The policy responses engendered significant shifts in growth trajectories and debt sustainability outlooks of both mature and developing economies. The magnitude of public liabilities incurred and the uncertainty surrounding the exit from unprecedented discretionary fiscal stimulus have become...