Search results

AbstractMicrofinance institutions require funding more rather than less during periods of financial crisis.

The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Russia / Peter Rutland. - S. 2-5 Financial Indicators. - S. 5-9 World Commodity Prices. - S. 9-12 The Financial Crisis as Perceived by the Russian Population (Late September 2008). - S. 12-15 After 10 Years of Growth, the Russian Economy May Be Losing Steam / Vladimir Popov . - S. 15-18 Economic and Social Indicators. - S. 18

India survived near-crisis situations twice in the 1990s. What determined its ability to learn from the experience of a balance of payments crisis in 1991 to shield the economy from the pressures of the Asian financial crisis in 1997? By linking the two crises within a framework of external and internal economic and political constraints, the paper explains the dynamics of the crises. It argues that India's success can be attributed to five sets of decisions taken during 1991-97: devaluation, engaging the IMF, floating the exchange rate while increasing the central bank's autonomy to intervene against speculative pressures, opening up the external sector while maintaining asymmetric capital controls, and liberalising the financial sector. The paper analyses the options, political opposition and eventual outcomes for each set of decisions. Based on this approach it argues that India's ownership of its reform programme helped set the pace of reform while close interaction between technocrats and the IMF added credibility. But the balance between entrenched traditional interest groups and the demands of new interests determined the scope of reform. Finally, the paper raises broad political questions for the lessons other countries can draw from India's experience.

The growth of the Irish economy in the years 1995-2007 was dramatic and unparalleled by Western economies, earning Ireland the moniker "The Celtic Tiger". Emerging from conditions of high unemployment, very high rates of emigration of graduates, and enormous government debt in the 1980s, the transformation of the Irish economy in two decades was remarkable and lauded by economists and commentators. High growth rates were facilitated by a number of factors, including the presence of a large number of multinationals producing goods for export, generally benign world economic conditions, low interest rates, a low taxation regime, and an expansionary government policy which embraced the tenets of the 'free market'. With the onset of the financial crisis, however, came another rapid transformation in the Irish economy. From being one of the fastest growing Western economies in the late 1990s, in 2009 Ireland suffered the greatest contraction of any OECD country since the second world war. The reasons for this dramatic reversal of fortune were attributable not only to the global financial crisis, but also to government policies and the structure of the Irish economy. In this chapter, the remarkable rise and fall of the Irish economy is described and analysed. Influences on the performance of the Irish economy in this period, including the benign world economy, government policy, and the structure of the Irish economy are analysed and examined. Proposals on how best to initiate recovery are also assessed, particularly the narrow focus of discourse which largely concentrates on attempts to 'fix' the current system, without considering alternative approaches.

Global financial crisis : implications for ASEAN -- Contents -- Preface -- Global Financial Crisis and Implications for Asean -- Commentaries: In Response to lead article, "Global Financial Crisis and Implications for ASEAN", by Masahiro Kawai -- Commentary: Charles Adams -- Commentary: V. Anantha-Nageswaran -- Commentary: Michael Lim Mah Hui -- Commentary: Pradumna B. Rana -- Commentary: Lim Chin -- What ASEAN Must do to Cope with the Crisis: Act Together to Maintain Confidence in the Underlying Strength of the Region's Economies -- About the Contributors.

India survived near-crisis situations twice in the 1990s. What determined its ability to learn from the experience of a balance of payments crisis in 1991 to shield the economy from the pressures of the Asian financial crisis in 1997? By linking the two crises within a framework of external and internal economic and political constraints, the paper explains the dynamics of the crises. It argues that India's success can be attributed to five sets of decisions taken during 1991-97: devaluation, engaging the IMF, floating the exchange rate while increasing the central bank's autonomy to intervene against speculative pressures, opening up the external sector while maintaining asymmetric capital controls, and liberalising the financial sector. The paper analyses the options, political opposition and eventual outcomes for each set of decisions. Based on this approach it argues that India's ownership of its reform programme helped set the pace of reform while close interaction between technocrats and the IMF added credibility. But the balance between entrenched traditional interest groups and the demands of new interests determined the scope of reform. Finally, the paper raises broad political questions for the lessons other countries can draw from India's experience.

In this study, we examine the relationship between the structure of financial systems and financial crises. Using cross-country data on financial structures and crises, we find that there is a significant short-term reversal in development of the banking sector and the stock market during both bank crises and market crashes, with the corporate bond market moving in the same direction as bank credit. However, the results are significant for countries with market-based financial systems but not for countries with bank-based financial systems. Emerging markets have mainly bank-based financial systems, which may explain why these markets require more time to recover from economic downturns after a financial crisis. Therefore, we argue that governments should emphasize a balanced financial system structure as it helps countries to recover from financial crises more quickly compared with countries that lack such balanced structures.