ASEAN Exchange Rates: Policies and Trade Effects

Description

This book examines the experience of the ASEAN countries in the post-Bretton Woods era - the period of generalized currency float. It outlines the major developments in the exchange rate policies of the ASEAN countries in the 1970s and analyses the movements of the effective exchange rates (both in terms of the trend and short-run variability) and their sources. The study shows that the increased exchange rate risk (variaibility) experienced by the ASEAN countries during the generalized floating period has had an anti-trade bias - reduced volume of imports. On the export side, simulations of world trade models for various commodities are carried out, and these indicate that multilateral changes in real exchange rates in the present international monetary system had adversely affected the major primary exports of the ASEAN countries. In the final chapter, the policy implications of the major findings are discussed.