Finance & Development articles from December 2004

Finance & Development archives from December 2004

The right blueprint for Africa?(From The Editor)(Editorial)
December 1, 2004... WITH AFRICA WATCHERS so focused on the continent's progress in reaching the UN Millennium Development Goals--an ambitious initiative to boost the living standards of the world's poorest by 2015--it is easy to overlook another ambitious...

Battling the AIDS pandemic.
December 1, 2004... The HIV/AIDS pandemic is not only a health emergency but also a threat to long-term development and even security for many low-income countries. Some 40 million people in the world are living with HIV (the virus that leads to AIDS), including...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2004... In the article "Avoiding Banking Crises in Latin Amerca," published in the September 2004 issue of F&D, the biography for IMF Deputy Managing Director Agustin G. Carstens should have stated that he was formerly Deputy Secretary of Finance for...

Events coming up in 2005.(Calendar)
December 1, 2004... January 18-22, Kobe, Japan World Conference on Disaster Reduction January 26-30, Davos, Switzerland World Economic Forum Annual Meeting April 10-12, Oldnawa, Japan Inter-American Development Bank Annual Meeting ...

On the ball.(Multilateral Investment Fund )(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Soccer could be the catalyst to help young people get jobs, according to a new proposal from the Inter-American Development Bank. The bank's Multilateral Investment Fund plans to provide a $3.8 million grant to a project that will use...

UN spotlights child hunger deaths.(United Nations)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... World hunger is rising, according to a new United Nations report, The Right to Food, that calls into doubt whether the world can meet the Millennium Development Goal that targets halving the number of hungry people by 2015. Although the world...

Babies and bosses.(Birth rates)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is looking at ways for parents and businesses to better balance work and family commitments. Declining fertility rates are a concern in most advanced economies, particularly in...

In on the ground floor: Jacqueline Irving interviews Linah Mohohlo, Botswana's award-winning central banker.(People In Economics)(Interview)
December 1, 2004... IT TAKES a certain steely quality to rise to the top of an organization when starting at the very bottom. But when that organization is a bureaucracy, it also takes tact and quiet determination, together with intellectual and managerial flair....

A single currency for Africa? Probably not, but selective expansion of existing monetary unions could be used to induce countries to improve their policies.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2004... THE GOAL of a common African currency has long been a pillar of African unity, a symbol of the strength that its backers hope will emerge from efforts to integrate the continent. Although the prospect of a single African currency had been...

Learning from success: understanding China's (uneven) progress against poverty.
December 1, 2004... OVER THE past 25 years, China has made huge strides in its battle against poverty as it has transformed into one of the most dynamic economies in the world. China's poverty rate today is probably slightly lower than the average for the world as...

From fixed to float: fear no more: the nuts and bolts of how countries can move to floating exchange rates.
December 1, 2004... ALTHOUGH a majority of the world's countries maintain pegged exchange rate regimes, a growing number of economies--such as Brazil, Chile, Israel, and Poland--have adopted flexible regimes over the past decade. This trend will likely continue...

What if ...? Stress testing uses different scenarios to determine how vulnerable countries' financial systems are to shocks.
December 1, 2004... THE financial crises of the 1990s underscored the importance of detailed knowledge about the vulnerabilities of the financial sector. In response, the IMF, working closely with the international community, began to develop new tools to better...

Pedantry or prudence: how does the IMF account for grants and loans?(Back To Basics)
December 1, 2004... TO MEET the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), politicians and economists agree that developing countries need more financial help, especially in the form of grants and concessional loans. Yet some in the development community have expressed...

Making room for public investment: possible new approaches to fiscal accounting.
December 1, 2004... FINDING money to invest in infrastructure and other public projects without jeopardizing fiscal stability has become a hot topic in many countries seeking to boost economic growth. At a recent United Nations conference on hunger and...

Agricultural trade: reaping a rich harvest from Doha.(Picture This)
December 1, 2004... AGRICULTURE is the driving force of many developing country economies, especially the least developed ones. World Trade Organization (WTO) statistics show that agriculture accounts for over one-third of export earnings for almost 50 developing...

Demystifying outsourcing: the numbers do not support the hype over job losses.
December 1, 2004... THE OUTSOURCING of services has received a huge amount of attention in the media and political circles in recent months, largely because media reports seem to equate outsourcing with job losses. In just five months, between January and May...

Combating corruption: look before you leap: a lack of progress in eradicating corruption could be due to misguided strategies.
December 1, 2004... STATISTICS on corruption are often questionable, but available data suggest that it accounts for a significant proportion of economic activity. In Kenya, "questionable" public expenditures noted by the Controller and Auditor General in 1997...

Taking the plunge without getting hurt: an IMF study suggests that opening up to the global economy could help developing countries cope with the adverse effects of volatility on growth.
December 1, 2004... AS A GROWING number of developing countries weigh whether to further integrate with the global economy through closer trade and financial linkages, they must cope with the prospect that greater openness often leads to greater...

Calculating the benefits of debt relief: how cutting the external debt burden can boost growth in low-income countries.
December 1, 2004... A LARGE number of low-income countries are now receiving debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and Enhanced HIPC initiatives, launched by the IMF and the World Bank in 1996 and 1999, respectively. These initiatives aim to...

Setting Africa free.(books)(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Robert Guest The Shackled Continent Power, Corruption, and African Lives Smithsonian Books, Washington, D.C., 2004, 288 pp., $27.50 (cloth). Geoff Hill The Battle for Zimbabwe Struik Publishers, Cape Town, South Africa, 2004, 304 pp.,...

Don't blow it.(book)(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Kaushik Basu (editor) India's Emerging Economy Performance and Prospects in the 1990s and Beyond The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2004, 328 pp., $45.00/29.95 [pounds sterling] (cloth). Strobe Talbott Engaging India Diplomacy,...

Revisiting the Asian crisis.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Stanley Fischer IMF Essays From a Time of Crisis The International Financial System, Stabilization, and Development The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2004, 535 pp., $50 (cloth). AS THE IMF'S second-in-command from 1994 to 2001,...

Odious or just malodorous? Why the odious debt proposal is likely to stay in cold storage.(Straight Talk)
December 1, 2004... SOMETHING terribly wrong happens when debt is incurred by a sovereign government that does not have good claim to represent the will of the people of the country, and its proceeds are not used for their benefit. Take the case of South Africa...

Brazil.(Country Focus)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Disciplined macroeconomic policies, greater international competitiveness, and progress with structural reforms have reduced vulnerabilities in recent years, but major challenges remain. Export performance has been remarkable, leading to an...