Efforts to control Argentina's inflation in 1988 and 1989 failed, generating episodes of hyperinflation, largely because the stabilization programs drove the public sector into debt "distress."
Annotation Argentina has reformed its public finance system and reversed years of economic decline and deficit spending. This study recommends policy options to speed the already impressive progress. These options would expand the ambitious reform program already under way. This study shows how to sustain balanced public finances over the medium term. It describes ways to sustain price stability and economic growth while providing a cushion against unexpected downturns. Also examined are ways to improve social services while reducing the size of government. Researchers discuss key reforms that could boost the fiscal surplus by as much as 1.4 percent of gross domestic product. They look at ways to build tax revenues, reduce provincial finances, and make social security more equitable. They review methods to cut defense spending and revive a moribund education system. Additional policy options offered are reforms for housing and welfare programs and pension fund investments. The study suggests ways to improve the legal framework for a stronger central bank. Also reviewed are ways to eliminate unnecessary administrative agencies and to privatize public enterprises. The government's new health insurance program is examined. This program offers universal coverage. It lets contributors choose providers and includes subsidies for those who can't pay. It also requires a minimum package of health care at a set price.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the recent growth of government domestic debt, including central bank debt, using a new data base on government domestic debt in developing countries with large, open financial systems. On average, government domestic debt grew much faster than GDP between 1994 and 2004 and became larger than foreign debt. The rapid growth of domestic debt reflects financial crises, the growth of central bank debt and the greater attractiveness to governments of issuing domestic debt as well as the recent increase in demands for it. Both its attractiveness and the increased demands for it reflect the current benign international environment to some degree. The main risk of government debt, domestic or foreign, remains its overall size relative to a country's fiscal, financial, and political institutions. While government domestic debt can help the domestic private capital market, large domestic debt, like large external debt, has risks. For example, there can be "sudden stops" in the demand for domestic debt as well as in foreign lending. Governments need to be aware of the risks and burdens in domestic debt issue-crowding out small borrowers, transferring risks to banks when issuing longer maturity, fixed-interest domestic debt and reducing returns, and imposing risks on holders of pensions, annuities, and life insurance policies. Growth of central bank debt can divert central banks from pursuit of the objective of price stability.
Beginning with volume 41 (1979), the University of Texas Press became the publisher of the Handbook of Latin American Stuides, the most comprehensive annual bibliography in the field. Compiled by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress and annotated by a corps of more than 130 specialists in various disciplines, the Handbook alternates from year to year between social sciences and humanities. The Handbook annotates works on Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and the Guianas, Spanish South America, and Brazil, as well as materials covering Latin America as a whole. Most of the subsections are preceded by introductory essays that serve as biannual evaluations of the literature and research underway in specialized areas. The Handbook of Latin American Studies is the oldest continuing reference work in the field. Dolores Moyano Martin, of the Library of Congress Hispanic Division, has been the editor since 1977, and P. Sue Mundell has been assistant editor since 1994. The subject categories for Volume 55 are as follows: Anthropology (including Archaeology and Ethnology) Economics Electronic Resources for the Social Sciences Geography Government and Politics International Relations Sociology
The risk that the debtor country will default on its external debt may be significantly decreased by a debt-reduction operation, by a reduction in international interest rates, and by changes in the country's willingness to pay.
One approach to trade policy among the former Soviet republics is to have no trade policy - to have completely free trade with convertibility for current account transactions. Trade policy should be transparent. Any tariff and export tax structures should be simple. Quantitative controls should be avoided. And no barriers to existing trade between the republics should be introduced.