Managing Volatile Capital Inflows: The Experience of the 1990s

The paper aims at deriving lessons for macroeconomic policy in developing countries in response to heavy temporary capital inflows as witnessed in the early 1990s. First, after spelling out the major reasons why policymakers should be concerned about cyclical inflows, the volatility of different cap...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Helmut Reisen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: World Scientific Publishing 1996-01-01
Series:Asian Development Review
Online Access:https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S0116110596000036
_version_ 1797794039054991360
author Helmut Reisen
author_facet Helmut Reisen
author_sort Helmut Reisen
collection DOAJ
description The paper aims at deriving lessons for macroeconomic policy in developing countries in response to heavy temporary capital inflows as witnessed in the early 1990s. First, after spelling out the major reasons why policymakers should be concerned about cyclical inflows, the volatility of different capital-account items (bank lending, foreign direct investment, and portfolio flows) is assessed. Second, the recent capital flows are compared between Asia and Latin America for similarities and differences. Third, the paper discusses for 13 heavy capital importers in Asia and Latin America the extent to which they met the prerequisites postulated by the sequencing literature to avoid macroeconomic complications of heavy capital inflows, and how they used these external savings in light of the debt cycle theory. Finally, the paper draws five policy lessons for the next episode of heavy capital inflows: identify the origin of rising foreign exchange reserves; identify the limits of foreign debt; discourage above-limit, short-term inflows; observe the tradeoff between price stability and competitiveness; and design policies to target monetary aggregates and exchange rates, including fiscal policy, sterilized intervention, reserve requirements, and exchange rate management.
first_indexed 2024-03-13T02:56:01Z
format Article
id doaj.art-e8a85c06f5d14e3c9a508b5103e867a0
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 0116-1105
1996-7241
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-13T02:56:01Z
publishDate 1996-01-01
publisher World Scientific Publishing
record_format Article
series Asian Development Review
spelling doaj.art-e8a85c06f5d14e3c9a508b5103e867a02023-06-28T04:51:30ZengWorld Scientific PublishingAsian Development Review0116-11051996-72411996-01-011401729610.1142/S0116110596000036Managing Volatile Capital Inflows: The Experience of the 1990sHelmut ReisenThe paper aims at deriving lessons for macroeconomic policy in developing countries in response to heavy temporary capital inflows as witnessed in the early 1990s. First, after spelling out the major reasons why policymakers should be concerned about cyclical inflows, the volatility of different capital-account items (bank lending, foreign direct investment, and portfolio flows) is assessed. Second, the recent capital flows are compared between Asia and Latin America for similarities and differences. Third, the paper discusses for 13 heavy capital importers in Asia and Latin America the extent to which they met the prerequisites postulated by the sequencing literature to avoid macroeconomic complications of heavy capital inflows, and how they used these external savings in light of the debt cycle theory. Finally, the paper draws five policy lessons for the next episode of heavy capital inflows: identify the origin of rising foreign exchange reserves; identify the limits of foreign debt; discourage above-limit, short-term inflows; observe the tradeoff between price stability and competitiveness; and design policies to target monetary aggregates and exchange rates, including fiscal policy, sterilized intervention, reserve requirements, and exchange rate management.https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S0116110596000036
spellingShingle Helmut Reisen
Managing Volatile Capital Inflows: The Experience of the 1990s
Asian Development Review
title Managing Volatile Capital Inflows: The Experience of the 1990s
title_full Managing Volatile Capital Inflows: The Experience of the 1990s
title_fullStr Managing Volatile Capital Inflows: The Experience of the 1990s
title_full_unstemmed Managing Volatile Capital Inflows: The Experience of the 1990s
title_short Managing Volatile Capital Inflows: The Experience of the 1990s
title_sort managing volatile capital inflows the experience of the 1990s
url https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S0116110596000036
work_keys_str_mv AT helmutreisen managingvolatilecapitalinflowstheexperienceofthe1990s