Finance & Development articles from March 1992

Finance & Development archives from March 1992

Reflections on the IMF. (interview with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Michel Camdessus) (Interview)
March 1, 1992... How soon do you see members of the tromer Soviet Union becoming full and participating members of the IMF? As soon as we can complete the work needed for membership to be rapidly as possible. Previous membership applications have taken from...

The challenges of development: some lessons of history for Sub-Saharan Africa.
March 1, 1992... For the developing world as a whole, the past 25 years have seen unprecedented progress: * Per-capita income in low-income countries has nearly doubled over the last generation-growing faster than the United Kingdom during the...

Central banking reforms in formerly planned economies.
March 1, 1992... As the new governments of Eastern Europe increasingly move from centrally planned to market-based systems, a wide range of reforms in central banking and monetary mnnagement, as well as in the broader financial sector, take on considerable...

The reform of Senegal's banking system.
March 1, 1992... The economic and financial difficulties of many Sub-Saharan African countries have been compounded by a banking crisis, which has been adversely affecting most sectors of their economy, including their external trade. The lack of adequate...

Reform of monetary policy instruments.
March 1, 1992... A particularly important function of a financial system in a market economy is to help mobilize a society's savings and to channel them to the most efficient types of investments. As direct controls of credit and interest rates have led to...

Central bank independence.
March 1, 1992... There has been considerable interest recently in increasing the independence of central banks in the formulation of monetary policy. Chile and New Zealand enacted new legislation to this effect in 1989, and several other countries in Latin...

Progress report on heterodox stabilization programs.
March 1, 1992... In the mid-1980s, a number of countries suffering from chronic high inflation--typically in the three-digit range--adopted what are now widely known as the "heterodox" stabilization programs. The main innovation was the inclusion of income...

New directions for the CGIAR. (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) (The CGIAR: Investing in Agricultural Research)
March 1, 1992... When the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) was rounded 20 years ago, its principal objective was to increase the supply of food as fast as possible to stave off the spectre of mass starvation, which had been a...

Challenges for global agricultural research. (The CGIAR: Investing in Agricultural Research)
March 1, 1992... 0 Twenty years ago, and in the face of growing populations and food shortages in South Asia, the world's spirits were boosted by news of India's and Pakistan's seemingly sudden success in launching the "Green Revolution." Both these...

Managing the CGIAR: how a global network of autonomous agricultural research centers operates. (The CGIAR: Investing in Agricultural Research)
March 1, 1992... Scientists are still puzzled over how a bumblebee flies, since its huge body and tiny wings defy the laws of aerodynamics. Similarly, the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) appears to fly in the face of many...

Biotechnology and the developing world: finding ways to bridge the agricultural technology gap. (The CGIAR: Investing in Agricultural Research)
March 1, 1992... As countries all over the world confront the need to dramatically boost agricultural output, biotechnology--which comprises 'techniques for using plants, animals, and microbes to produce useful substances or improve existing spedes--stands out...

Voluntary market financing for Latin America. (includes glossary)
March 1, 1992... After a prolonged and almost total reliance on debt reschedulings, some Latin American countries--notably Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela-have recently begun to attract voltrotary financing from international capital markets. This provides them...

Innovations in debt relief: the Paris Club. (includes related article)
March 1, 1992... Recent moves by the Paris Club have opened the pessibility of reducing the debt burden of severely indebted low-income countries through debt cancellation and restructuring. In doing so, the Paris Club has attempted to broaden the approach...

Assessing a country's debt burden: how various forms of debt relief affect measures of the debt burden. (includes related article)
March 1, 1992... Over the past three years, external creditors have strengthened the debt strategy by expanding the number of channels of support for countries with debt-servicing difficulties. These channels now encompass the provision of new financing,...

Facilitating foreign investment: some dos and don'ts. (includes related article)
March 1, 1992... Attitudes toward foreign direct investment (FDI) have changed considerably over the last two decades. During the 1970s, many developing country governments discouraged such investment on the grounds that foreign firms would reap "rents" (i.e.,...

MIGA: up and running. (Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency; includes related article)
March 1, 1992... For developing nations throughout the world, foreign direct investment (FDI) holds enormous attraction. After decades of trying to acquire needed funds through other means-notably commodity cartels, commercial bank lending, and multilateral and...

Recent trends in FDI for the developing world. (foreign direct investment) (World Economy in Transition)
March 1, 1992... During the second half of the 1980s, the volume of global foreign direct investment (FDI) grew from approximately $47 billion in 1985 to $132 billion in 1989. Flows to develop- ing countries also increased during this period; however, they...

Why official export promotion fails: a survey of experience and interviews with experts. (includes related article)
March 1, 1992... Most officials in developing countries seem to believe that export promotion--not only the task of persuading firms to export, but also the provision of services to support export marketing--is inherently a task for government. The predominant...

Educating girls. (educational opportunities for girls in the developing world)
March 1, 1992... The economic and social benefits of educating girls are substantial; the latter are on the whole probably greater than those for boys. Yet, paradoxically, both parents and society invest less in educating girls than in educating boys in most...