Pathways through financial crises: options for developing countries
There is a lively debate at present within the international finance community about how financial crises should be managed and how to improve the management of international debt workouts. Proposals for a formal Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism (including by the IMF) and for less formal procedures such as a Code of Good Conduct (including by creditors) are being discussed.
The voice of developing, emerging and transition economies in this debate has been limited, as has a focussed analysis of the impact of the current global regime on the political possibilities and obstacles they face in managing financial crises.
This project seeks to balance the existing debate by highlighting (on the basis of the experience of developing country decision-makers) the alternatives available within the current regime, as well as key obstacles posed by existing rules and the way they interract with the politics of countries afflicted by the risks of a financial crisis
The research
The countries being studied in this project include: Turkey, Argentina, India, South Africa, Singapore, and Russia. In respect of each country a researcher is preparing a background paper using a template comparable across all cases. These papers are the starting point for a discussion among senior officials involved in each case.
The project brings together Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors who have, themselves, steered their countries through or around financial crises, to elaborate on issues raised (or wrongly neglected) in the background papers and to compare their contrasting experiences.
The output