Beyond the global financial crisis: central banking in a new global financial system

Since the outbreak of the global crisis in mid 2007, there has been an extensive discussion on root causes. Some blame the greed and corruption of financial actors. Others put the blame on central bankers for easy money or regulators who remained idle as too much risks accumulated in financial markets. According to advanced economies, global imbalances have been caused by emerging surplus countries that keep their currency undervalued and their domestic consumption restricted. It is unfortunate that all these arguments and counter arguments, which may be valid in their own way, prevents a more general discussion on the deep-seated conflicts and contradictions in the global economic, social and political paradigm upon which the world order is built. To put it another way, the problems we face today do not arise from some operational failures, but from the system itself and the underlying philosophical framework. In fact this is a crisis of three main pillars of our existing system: the crisis of the economic theory, the crisis of the globalization, and the crisis of market based financial system.global financial crisis, economic theory, financial system

Why did it work this time: a comparative analysis of transformation of Turkish economy after 2002

Turkey had several unsuccessful stabilization efforts during 1980s and 1990s. Thanks to policies that were put into practice after the 2001 crisis, which constitutes a turning point for Turkish economy, fiscal discipline was restored, single digit inflation was reached, and yet growth rate was doubled compared to the previous decade average. As a result investment climate improved and the economy benefited from substantial amount of foreign direct investment and other long-term capital inflows. However these developments had some adverse side effects as well. Real appreciation of domestic currency, deterioration of trade balance, and increasing private indebtedness generated vulnerability for sudden stops. Beside, increasing global integration and very rapid shift in the economic circumstances caused difficulties for traditional sectors. This paper analyzes the Turkish experience after 2001 and identifies underlying dynamics of the restructuring program, while denoting the costs of this transition. Turkish case provides evidence in favor of disinflation programs combined with sound fiscal policies in spite of some adverse effects in the short run.Turkish Economy, Crisis, Stabilization Policy, Macroeconomic Performance

Turkey's response to the global economic crisis

Turkey was not affected by the financial crisis as much as the advanced economies and managed to rapidly exit the turmoil. The reasons behind the strong response and quick recovery of the Turkish economy were its low country risk and low currency risk premiums. This study shows the foundations of these low risk premiums and compares some measures of these risks of the Turkish economy with peer countries. Second, this paper demonstrates that all of Turkey’s economic sectors were very strong before the crisis and sustained this strength during the course of the crisis. Finally, it discusses the policies that have already been taken and planned to be taken by Turkey’s economic authorities. The government seems to be very determined in keeping fiscal discipline as tight as necessary while not being excessivefinancial crises, global economic crisis, Turkey, economic policies, financial markets

The experience with macro-prudential policies of the central bank of the republic of Turkey in response to the global financial crisis

This brief country case study on Turkey aims to summarize the fundamental developments in the banking sector, which represents almost 90 percent of the financial sector in the country. The brief has two parts. The first covers the 2001 financial crisis and the developments until end of 2007, the year before the global financial crisis of 2008 started. The second part focuses on the macro-prudential policies applied by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey in response to the global financial crisis in three phases: (i) full liquidity support after Lehman Brothers'collapse (September 2008), (ii) the exit strategy (April 2010), and (iii) the new policy mix (final quarter of 2010).Debt Markets,Banks&Banking Reform,Currencies and Exchange Rates,Emerging Markets,Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress

Oil prices and emerging market exchange rates

This paper investigates the role of oil prices in explaining the dynamics of selected emerging countries exchange rates. Using daily data series, the study concludes that a rise in oil price is leading to a significant appreciation in emerging economies currencies against the US dollar. In our study, we divide daily returns from 03/01/2003 to 02/06/2010 into 3 subsamples and test the role of oil price changes on exchange rate movements. We employ generalized impulse response functions to trace out the dynamic response of each exchange rate in three different time periods. Our findings suggest that oil price dynamics are changing significantly in the sample period and the relation between oil prices and exchange rates becomes more relevant after the 2008 financial crisis.oil prices; emerging market exchange rates; international financial markets; financial crisis

Global Imbalances, Current Account Rebalancing and Exchange Rate Adjustments

We analyze the global imbalances and the required adjustments for rebalancing in current accounts and real exchange rates. We set up a two-country two-sector model for the US- China with two asymmetries. First, we assume that the size of China initially is one third of the US but its size becomes half of the US in the next ten years consistent with the fast growth expectations in China. Secondly, we assume that China initially runs a net export surplus against the US. Then we quantitatively study two adjustment scenarios. First scenario,called Slow Adjustment, assumes that in the process of growth, Chinese demand composition moves more towards domestic non-tradable sector. In this case, Chinese real exchange rate appreciates gradually and net export surplus also decreases slowly. Second scenario, called Quick Adjustment, assumes that in addition to the higher non-tradable share in output, net export surplus against US goes to zero quickly in fi�ve years. In this case, net export adjustment happens quickly and real exchange rates in China also appreciate faster and at a higher rate than Slow Adjustment case. Even though, global imbalances are eliminated faste in the Quick Adjustment case, high real appreciation in China hurts importers in the US. A comparison in terms of output shows that Slow Adjustments is preferred for both countries.Global imbalances, Current accounts, Exchange rate adjustments

Beyond the global financial crisis: central banking in a new global financial system

Since the outbreak of the global crisis in mid 2007, there has been an extensive discussion on root causes. Some blame the greed and corruption of financial actors. Others put the blame on central bankers for easy money or regulators who remained idle as too much risks accumulated in financial markets. According to advanced economies, global imbalances have been caused by emerging surplus countries that keep their currency undervalued and their domestic consumption restricted. It is unfortunate that all these arguments and counter arguments, which may be valid in their own way, prevents a more general discussion on the deep-seated conflicts and contradictions in the global economic, social and political paradigm upon which the world order is built. To put it another way, the problems we face today do not arise from some operational failures, but from the system itself and the underlying philosophical framework. In fact this is a crisis of three main pillars of our existing system: the crisis of the economic theory, the crisis of the globalization, and the crisis of market based financial system

Why did it work this time: a comparative analysis of transformation of Turkish economy after 2002

Turkey had several unsuccessful stabilization efforts during 1980s and 1990s. Thanks to policies that were put into practice after the 2001 crisis, which constitutes a turning point for Turkish economy, fiscal discipline was restored, single digit inflation was reached, and yet growth rate was doubled compared to the previous decade average. As a result investment climate improved and the economy benefited from substantial amount of foreign direct investment and other long-term capital inflows. However these developments had some adverse side effects as well. Real appreciation of domestic currency, deterioration of trade balance, and increasing private indebtedness generated vulnerability for sudden stops. Beside, increasing global integration and very rapid shift in the economic circumstances caused difficulties for traditional sectors. This paper analyzes the Turkish experience after 2001 and identifies underlying dynamics of the restructuring program, while denoting the costs of this transition. Turkish case provides evidence in favor of disinflation programs combined with sound fiscal policies in spite of some adverse effects in the short run

Oil prices and emerging market exchange rates

This paper investigates the role of oil prices in explaining the dynamics of selected emerging countries exchange rates. Using daily data series, the study concludes that a rise in oil price is leading to a significant appreciation in emerging economies currencies against the US dollar. In our study, we divide daily returns from 03/01/2003 to 02/06/2010 into 3 subsamples and test the role of oil price changes on exchange rate movements. We employ generalized impulse response functions to trace out the dynamic response of each exchange rate in three different time periods. Our findings suggest that oil price dynamics are changing significantly in the sample period and the relation between oil prices and exchange rates becomes more relevant after the 2008 financial crisis