Re: floating exchange rate

[phillp2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Interesting,
Last year I asked a leading banker/businessman in Slovenia the
secret of Slovenia's macroeconomic success in the transition to a
capitalist market economy.  His reply was "We didn't follow the
advice of western economists and the IMF."

Paul Phillips,
Economics,
University of Manitoba
Date sent:      	Thu, 17 Jan 2002 02:35:28 -0500
From:           	"Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To:             	"pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
       	"gang8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <gang8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
       	"TheNewForum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <TheNewForum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject:        	floating exchange rate

> FT January 16 2002
>
> Free advice
>
> One could forgive Viktor Ger ashchenko for feeling a little smug: the
> president of Russia's central bank has repaid the country's debts ahead
> of schedule (just three years after a default) and the country was the
> fastest-growing economy in the Group of Eight last year.
>
> Gerashchenko credits the rapid recovery to the decision to ignore the
> advice of the International Monetary Fund and adopt a floating exchange
> rate.
>
> On a visit to Panama this week - en route to Chile - Gerashchenko could
> not resist prescribing the same medicine for Argentina, which has only
> partly abandoned its own fixed exchange rate system after becoming mired
> in a three-year recession.
>
> "The solution we took established a floating exchange rate.  That was
> not the same system as the famous Mr Cavallo  [Argentina's former
> economy minister]," he said. "It was justified and we were able to
> increase our reserves from $2.5bn to $35bn."
>
> Gerashchenko is unlikely to pop across the border from Chile to
> Argentina to deliver his advice in person, however. "I was in Buenos
> Aires in 1995. It was a very interesting visit. I got a lot of
> experience. I would very much like to visit the city again - but in
> another era."
>