Stabilization and Adjustment in Egypt


Book Description

This book studies the impact of Egypt's Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Programme (ERSAP), the effects of which have been of great interest to the international community. Organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF uphold the programme as a success story and example for other countries to follow. ERSAP also has its critics, however, who resent its tendency to downsize government and fear possible negative effects on growth and development. The author discusses these concerns along with those regarding the possible negative social effects of ERSAP.




Our Continent, Our Future


Book Description

Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.




Managing Currency Crises in Emerging Markets


Book Description

The management of financial crises in emerging markets is a vital and high-stakes challenge in an increasingly global economy. For this reason, it's also a highly contentious issue in today's public policy circles. In this book, leading economists-many of whom have also participated in policy debates on these issues-consider how best to reduce the frequency and cost of such crises. The contributions here explore the management process from the beginning of a crisis to the long-term effects of the techniques used to minimize it. The first three chapters focus on the earliest responses and the immediate defense of a currency under attack, exploring whether unnecessary damage to economies can be avoided by adopting the right response within the first few days of a financial crisis. Next, contributors examine the adjustment programs that follow, considering how to design these programs so that they shorten the recovery phase, encourage economic growth, and minimize the probability of future difficulties. Finally, the last four papers analyze the actual effects of adjustment programs, asking whether they accomplish what they are designed to do-and whether, as many critics assert, they impose disproportionate costs on the poorest members of society. Recent high-profile currency crises have proven not only how harmful they can be to neighboring economies and trading partners, but also how important policy responses can be in determining their duration and severity. Economists and policymakers will welcome the insightful evaluations in this important volume, and those of its companion, Sebastian Edwards and Jeffrey A. Frankel's Preventing Currency Crises in Emerging Markets.




The Politics of Economic Adjustment


Book Description

This is a collection of essays offering comparative analysis of the divergent experiences of developing countries responding to economic crises by adopting macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment policies.




The IMF Approach to Economic Stabilization


Book Description

This paper explains the IMF approach to economic stabilization. It argues that a Fund-supported program is a process, comprising six broadly defined phases, that evolves along a multiplicity of potential pathways. The paper discusses the three-pronged approach to stabilization at the core of all IMF-supported programs, stresses the iterative character of “financial programming,” and explains the rationale for setting quantitative performance criteria for fiscal and monetary policy in IMF-supported arrangements. A main theme is that IMF-supported programs contain a great deal of flexibility to respond both to differences in circumstances and to changes in conditions in individual cases.




Structural Adjustment, the Environment and Sustainable Development


Book Description

This is a pioneering study which should serve as a model for future research and will to a wide audience' Dharam Ghai, Director United Nations Research Institute for Social Development Structural Adjustment and the Environment (Earthscan, 1992) was the first book to fully examine the effects of 'structural adjustment programmes the economic reform policies required by the World Bank and IMF as part of their lending operations with borrowing countries. To widespread Critical acclaim it exposed the damaging environmental and social effects of structural adjustment policies, and called for a thorough revision of the then-current development policy. This new work; Structural Adjustment, the Environment and sustainable Development is a major step forward in the study of structural adjustment policies. It looks in detail at new research and analysis into their effects, and incorporates recent studies by a wide range of academics and policy-makers, leading experts and institutes. Focusing on nine in-depth case studies, the book examines the complex links between macroeconomic policies, social impacts and environmental outcomes, and takes a forward-looking perspective in outlining the alternatives to current structural adjustment policies. Review quotes for Structural Adjustment and the Environment 'Should be essential reading for all students of development' Third World Planning Review 'Breaks new ground in the debate on structural adjustment generally. and in the environment/development debate' International Affairs 'The most substantial contribution to date to what is undoubtedly an important area' Development and Change David Reed is director of the Macroeconomics for Sustainable Development Programme of WWF International, and editor of Structural Adjustment and the Environment (Earthscan, 1992). Originally published in 1996







The Political Economy of Turkey


Book Description

Turkey stands at a crossroad after a decade of adjustment to its severe debt crisis in the late 1970s. This volume brings together a group of contributors who discuss the consequences of this transition and the likely pains for the future.




IMF Conditionality


Book Description

The twenty-one contributions in this book assess the controversy surrounding the Fund and provide judgments about the criteria for Fund lending which should help readers understand and analyze both its ongoing role in smoothing adjustment to international payments imbalances and its currently critical position in responding to the debt crisis.




Lesotho


Book Description

This Selected Issues paper highlights that Lesotho’s overall economic situation deteriorated significantly in 1998/99 after registering a slowdown in 1997/98. The economy had witnessed high annual average growth rates of more than 6 percent in the decade ended 1996/97. The strong growth was spurred largely by the construction of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and the rapid expansion of the export and manufacturing sector. Real GDP growth decelerated sharply from 9.7 percent in 1996/97 to 4.1 percent in 1997/98 and then declined by 5.4 percent in 1998/99.