Currency Boards: Issues and Experiences

Adam Bennett

No 1994/018, IMF Policy Discussion Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This paper discusses some of the issues that concern the operation of currency boards, by comparison to conventional exchange rate pegs, and looks at the experiences of three examples of this type of arrangement: Argentina (from 1991), Hong Kong (from 1983) and Estonia (from 1992). In all three cases, the implementation of currency boards or equivalent arrangements played a significant role in their successful stabilization programs. Currency boards derive their strength from the fact that they severely constrain the policy maker’s room for manoeuvre, by comparison to conventional pegs. They generally require an even stricter and less forgiving attitude to bank failure, wage and price rigidities and other disturbances than do exchange rate pegs in general. This is a Paper on Policy Analysis and Assessment and the author(s) would welcome any comments on the present text. Citations should refer to a Paper on Policy Analysis and Assessment of the international Monetary Fund mentioning the author(s) and the date of issuance. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Fund.

Keywords: PDP; currency board; currency; exchange rate; interest rate; commercial bank; base money liability; peg currency; currency bank notes; Hong Kong exchange arrangement; Hong Kong dollar; exchange arrangement; Estonian currency board; bank notes; Currency boards; Exchange rates; Currencies; Commercial banks; Open market operations; Baltics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36
Date: 1994-09-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=1465 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:imf:imfpdp:1994/018

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Policy Discussion Papers from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().