Real Gross Domestic product (GDP) in Thailand is projected to grow at 5.0 percent in 2008, driven by recovery in domestic demand. The key reason for the strengthened growth this year is the higher confidence of both consumers and investors with the return of democracy and the election of a new...

Five years since the start of the global financial crisis, the world economy continues to face downside risks, while the outlook remains clouded by weak market sentiments. Governments in developed economies are engaging in fiscal consolidation, which is negatively affecting their economic...

The ongoing euro zone debt crisis creates an undesirable scenario for the global economy as well as for the Asia-Pacific region given that the region has close economic linkages. The paper aims to provide quantitative estimates of the potential impact of the euro zone debt crisis on merchandise...

We examine the view that high-quality macroeconomic policy is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for economic growth. We first construct a new index of the quality of macroeconomic policy. We then directly compare growth rate distributions across countries with good and bad policies; use...

It is often argued that macroeconomic instability can form a binding constraint on economic growth. Drawing on a new index of stability, threshold estimation is used to divide developing economies into two growth regimes, depending on a threshold level of stability. For the more stable group of...

The Maastricht inflation criterion, designed in the early 1990s to bring “high-inflation†EU countries into line with “low-inflation†countries prior to the introduction of the euro, poses challenges for both new EU member countries and the European Central Bank. While the...

This paper discusses the issue of central bank losses, developing a framework for assessing the ability of a central bank to keep its balance sheet sustainable without having to default on its policy objectives. Compared to the earlier literature, it analyses in more depth the consequences of...

In this volume we investigate the macroeconomic aspects of labour market behaviour and its microfoundations. In the first part we deal with aggregate labour market trends and issues relevant to macroeconomic policy. The second part analyses in more detail labour flexibility, namely labour market...