KEY ISSUES 2014 marked the tenth anniversary of accession to the EU of the first group of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The first NMS Policy Forum was launched in the fall of 2014 as a platform for discussing policy frameworks and issues relevant for non-euro area NMS. It brought...

This Selected Issues Paper's objective is to illustrate economic benefits and costs from euro adoption by reviewing the main arguments and empirical evidence in Central and Eastern Europe: New Member States (NMS). The parameters of the euro adoption debate have shifted. Although countries...

Of the new members entering the European Union (EU) in May 2004, several had achieved a decade of impressive export growth, expanding significantly their shares of world markets. The empirical analysis shows that over the period 1994–2004, quality and technology upgrading associated with the...

This paper analyzes competitiveness in the Baltics in the run-up to European Union accession. Several factors appear to have driven movements in equilibrium real exchange rates in the Baltics since the start of the transition process. In the earlier years of transition, price liberalization,...

Economic activity and social conditions have been adversely affected by the intensification of the civil war. The goal is to restore domestic and external equilibrium and create the conditions for sustained growth, especially by boosting the growth of the non-oil sectors, lowering inflation to...

This paper describes economic developments in Angola during the 1990s. A major decline in economic conditions occurred in 1993, in the wake of the resumption of the civil war. In 1993, inflation reached unprecedented levels, overall GDP declined by an estimated 24 percent in real terms, and oil...

This paper describes economic developments in Peru during the 1990s. During 1990–92, real GDP growth was negative by 0.9 percent a year on average, reflecting in part deterioration in the terms of trade and adverse weather conditions. During that period, growth in the construction,...

This paper describes economic developments in Ecuador during the 1990s. Inflation fell from an average of about 50 percent in 1988–92 to 22 percent in April 1995. Economic activity rebounded, and international reserves were rebuilt. Relations with foreign creditors were normalized through an...