The IMF's Stand-by Arrangements and the Economic Downturn in Eastern Europe: The Cases of Hungary, Latvia, and Ukraine

This paper looks at three countries that have been hard-hit by the world economic recession, and have turned to the IMF for assistance: Hungary, Latvia, and Ukraine. In all of these countries, it would appear that there were more sensible responses to the crisis that would reduce the loss of employment and output, cuts in social services, and political instability that have resulted from the downturn. Instead, the governments' responses to the downturn as well as IMF conditions for assistance have caused additional harm

Honduras: Recent Economic Performance

This paper looks at the Honduran economy, including longer-term trends, the pre-crisis years, and recent developments since the June 28th coup. It finds that poverty and inequality decreased significantly during the Zelaya administration, with rapid growth of more than 6 percent during the first two years. The government also increased school enrollment significantly by abolishing school fees, expanded school lunch programs, and raised the minimum wage by 60 percent. Some expansionary monetary policy was used to counter-act the global downturn in 2008.The paper finds that more recently, the Honduran economy has become especially vulnerable to the combined impacts of the world recession and the political crisis that has followed the military coup of June 28, 2009

Costa Rica During the Global Recession: Fiscal Stimulus with Tight Monetary Policy

This paper shows that, in spite of a reasonably sized fiscal stimulus package, Costa Rica’s economy continues on a downward path, partly because fiscal policy is being offset by a tightening of monetary policy. The paper notes that the International Monetary Fund has insisted that Costa Rica’s monetary policy remain tight due to worries over inflation targets and a perceived risk of a balance of payments crisis. However, the author notes that the IMF could help prevent a balance of payments crisis through the provision of a credit line of foreign currency, as it has done, for example, in Mexico – a vastly larger economy. The paper also examines the government’s macroeconomic policies in recent years, prior to the world recession, to see what alternative policies might have done better.Costa Rica, IMF, stimulus

The IMF’s Stand-by Arrangements and the Economic Downturn in Eastern Europe: The Cases of Hungary, Latvia, and Ukraine

This paper looks at three countries that have been hard-hit by the world economic recession, and have turned to the IMF for assistance: Hungary, Latvia, and Ukraine. In all of these countries, it would appear that there were more sensible responses to the crisis that would reduce the loss of employment and output, cuts in social services, and political instability that have resulted from the downturn. Instead, the governments’ responses to the downturn as well as IMF conditions for assistance have caused additional harm.IMF, Hungary, Latvia, Ukraine, fiscal policy, monetary policy

Honduras: Recent Economic Performance

This paper looks at the Honduran economy, including longer-term trends, the pre-crisis years, and recent developments since the June 28th coup. It finds that poverty and inequality decreased significantly during the Zelaya administration, with rapid growth of more than 6 percent during the first two years. The government also increased school enrollment significantly by abolishing school fees, expanded school lunch programs, and raised the minimum wage by 60 percent. Some expansionary monetary policy was used to counter-act the global downturn in 2008. The paper finds that more recently, the Honduran economy has become especially vulnerable to the combined impacts of the world recession and the political crisis that has followed the military coup of June 28, 2009.Honduras, Zelaya, Latin America, Central America

Empowering the IMF: Should Reform be a Requirement for Increasing the Fund's Resources?

This paper briefly reviews the IMF’s current practices and policy-making in the context of a proposed quadrupling of IMF resources to $1 trillion dollars, and a consequent increase in the Fund’s influence over economic policy-making in developing countries. It finds that the IMF is still prescribing inappropriate policies that could unnecessarily exacerbate economic downturns in a number of countries. The paper concludes that these pro-cyclical policies can exacerbate the world economic downturn. Perhaps more importantly, the re-establishment of the IMF as a major power in economic and decision-making in low-and-middle income countries, with little or no voice for these countries in the IMF’s decision-making, could have long-term implications for growth, development, and social indicators in many countries. The authors propose some reforms in the areas of governance and accountability to be attached of funding increases, in order to help prevent adverse outcomes.IMF

Capital Controls and Monetary Policy in Developing Countries

This paper looks at both the theoretical and empirical literature on capital controls and finds that capital controls can play an important role in developing countries by helping to insulate them from some of the harmful effects of volatile and short-term capital flows. The authors look at controls on capitalinflows in Malaysia (1989-1995); Colombia (1993-1998); Chile (1989-1998); and Brazil (1992-1998), and also consider the case of Malaysia’s controls on outflows in 1998-2001. They conclude that there is sufficient backing in both economic theory and empirical evidence to consider more widespread adoption of capital controls in order to address some of the macroeconomic problems associated with short-term capital flows, to enable certain development strategies, and to allow policy makers more flexibility with regard to crucial monetary and exchange rate policies.capital controls, capital flows

Flexible and low-cost binderless capacitors based on p- and n-containing fibrous activated carbons from denim cloth wastes

Activated carbon cloths have been prepared from denim cloth wastes (DCWs) through chemical activation with H3PO4. The effect of the H3PO4/DCWs impregnation ratio and the carbonization temperature on the porous texture, the chemical composition, the fibers morphology, and the electrochemical performance has been studied. Low H3PO4/DCWs impregnation ratios lead to flexible and microporous activated carbons cloths, whereas more fragile and rigid activated carbon cloths with higher external surface area are produced upon increasing the amount of H3PO4. The increase in the carbonization temperature allows for obtaining a more ordered and conductive carbon structure. The activated carbon prepared at 900 ºC with a H3PO4/DCWs impregnation ratio of 0.5 (w/w) exhibits the best performance as electric double layer capacitor. This electrode shows a specific surface area of 2016 m2 g-1 and the highest registered gravimetric capacitance (227 F g-1). Moreover, its flexibility minimizes the ohmic resistance of the electrode, thus increasing the feasibility of working at higher current densities than the other synthesized electrodes.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech; MINECO CTQ2015-68654-