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Last Updated: April 28, 2008

Emerging Markets

Farmers work on the terraced rice fields carved out of hills at Longji, China. As the global food crisis continues to intensify, many EMs are also feeling the effects. (photo: Redlink/Corbis)

EMs typically have low to middle per capita income and pursue economic development and reform programs. They then "emerge" as significant players in the global economy.

Overhaul of IMF Quotas: A recent IMF resolution shifts representation of dynamic economies in the IMF, many of which are emerging market countries, and gives poorer countries a greater say in running the IMF.

Country News

Banking in Europe's Transition Economies

April 25, 2008
High intermediation costs among banks in southeastern Europe are hampering economic development in the region. click for more

Risks Confront Africa's Expanding Economies

April 12, 2008
African oil exporters will again lead the region's economic expansion, but slow growth in advanced economies, along with higher oil and food prices, has raised risks. click for more

Asian Growth Easing, But Still Strong

April 11, 2008
Led by China and India, growth in Asia is forecast to be 6.2 percent in 2008, a decline of 1¼ percentage points as a result of the slowdown in advanced economies. click for more

Vietnam: New Challenges Amid Signs of Overheating

March 7, 2008
Vietnam's economy is growing rapidly, attracting large inflows of foreign investment, but signs that the economy is overheating could threaten sustained growth unless the government takes action. click for more

China as Hub: Intra-regional Trade in Asia

February 6, 2008
Asian exports are booming, with growth built increasingly around rapid growth in intra-regional trade that has China playing a central role. click for more

India: High Capital Inflows Pose Policy Challenge

February 4, 2008
Over the past five years, average growth of 8¾ percent has made India one of the world's fastest-growing economies. click for more

IMF Develops New Risk Measures Tools for Public Debt

January 14, 2008
Responding to the need to better assess the risks involved in managing bonded public debt, the IMF has recently developed practical tools for use by both country authorities and IMF economists to measure such risks. click for more

IMF Helps Develop Local Bond Markets

January 2, 2008
The IMF and the World Bank are stepping up their efforts to help emerging market countries develop local bond markets and thereby reduce their reliance on bank loans and broaden their investment opportunities. click for more

Spotlight

Latin America: Still Resilient, But Risks Ahead

April 11, 2008
Deteriorating global economic conditions will present the first major test of the improved macroeconomic policy frameworks that most Latin American and Caribbean countries adopted during the past decade. click for more

Can Latin America Dodge Subprime Shock?

February 5, 2008
Is Latin America now less vulnerable to outside shocks than it was a decade or more ago or is the region still tied to the coattails of the United States?

More on U.S. Subprime Market click for more

Publications

GFSR Market Update

January 29, 2008
The most recent GFSR Update discusses how emerging markets have been affected by the continuing market turmoil. click for more

World Economic Outlook 

October, 2007
Chapter 3 of the WEO examines the effectiveness of various policy responses to surges in private capital inflows in both emerging market countries and advanced economies. click for more

Research

How do EMs attract FDI?

March 24, 2008
A recent study suggests that financial reform is not only more important than financial development but also that financial reform is much more important than other structural reforms vis-à-vis FDI. click for more

FDI and Structural Reforms: Evidence from Eastern Europe and Latin America

February 26, 2008
Focusing on the role of structural reforms, research by IMF staff attempts to identify the factors that attract FDI. The data set includes 19 Latin American countries and 25 transition economies. click for more

Emerging Market Spread Compression: Is it Real or is it Liquidity?

January 1, 2008
Despite recent turmoil, spreads on emerging market countries' sovereign bonds have fallen dramatically since mid-2002. Some have attributed the fall to improved economic fundamentals while others to ample global liquidity. The working paper models spreads and attempts to empirically distinguish between the two factors. click for more

More publications on emerging markets click for more