The paper employs a heuristic comparative approach suggested by Ismail (2009) to search for evidence of Dutch disease in oil-rich countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). While these countries have benefitted from high international oil prices in recent years,...

This paper on recent developments and regional policy issues in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) discusses the recent development and trends in economic integration. Trade restrictions and an uneven application of CEMAC rules constrain external and intraregional trade....

Questions about external competitiveness, exchange rate misalignment, and the appropriate exchange rate policy feature prominently in the Russian policy debate. This paper furthers the debate by estimating empirically Russia's equilibrium real exchange rate (ERER)-that is, the rate consistent...

Macroeconomic developments benefited from oil windfalls, but structural problems still impede non-oil growth. Fiscal and external balances improved in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) because of the surge in oil prices and better fiscal management. Oil-related reserve...

The euro area recovered from the economic doldrums. Executive Directors welcomed the recovery, supported by strong financial conditions, global growth, and improved financial positions. They encouraged the reformed Stability and Growth Pact over fiscal policies, and underscored the need for...

The paper analyzes the export performance and external competitiveness in FYR Macedonia. It describes the trends in the account balance, external vulnerabilities, and different approaches to estimate the equilibrium real exchange rate; and reviews economic growth experience and prospects and...

This Selected Issues paper on Saudi Arabia assesses Saudi Arabia’s role in the oil market and global economy. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest producer and exporter of oil, has long played a systemically important role in the global oil market. Short-term fluctuations in Saudi...

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...

This study examines the relationship between the foreign exchange regime and macroeconomic performance in Eastern Africa. The study focuses on seven countries, five of which decisively liberalized their foreign exchange regimes. The study assesses the relationship between (i) growth and various...

This is the fourth of a series of papers that are being written as part of a larger project to estimate a small quarterly Global Projection Model (GPM). The GPM project is designed to improve the toolkit to which economists have access for studying both own-country and cross-country linkages. In...