scholarly journals South Africa’s Trade Performance under Alternative Exchange Rate Regimes

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6(J)) ◽  
pp. 261-271
Author(s):  
Romaine Patrick ◽  
Phocenah Nyatanga

This study examined the effect exchange rates have on import and export volumes under alternative exchange rate policies adopted in South Africa over the period 1960 to 2017. Using quarterly time series data for the stated period, a log-linear error correction model is employed to estimate the country’s export and import elasticities, taking into account Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the real price of exports, the real price of imports and real exchange rates. Using the freely floating exchange rate regime as the base period, the study concluded that both export and import volumes are lower under a system of fixed exchange rates. Export and import volumes were also found to be lower under the dual exchange rate regime, relative to the freely floating exchange rate regime. In accordance with export-led growth strategies, exports were found to be higher and imports lower under a managed floating exchange rate regime. It is therefore recommended that South Africa revert to a more managed exchange rate regime, until the South African economy is developed to accommodate a freely floating exchange rate regime.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Romaine Patrick ◽  
Phocenah Nyatanga

This study examined the effect exchange rates have on import and export volumes under alternative exchange rate policies adopted in South Africa over the period 1960 to 2017. Using quarterly time series data for the stated period, a log-linear error correction model is employed to estimate the country’s export and import elasticities, taking into account Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the real price of exports, the real price of imports and real exchange rates. Using the freely floating exchange rate regime as the base period, the study concluded that both export and import volumes are lower under a system of fixed exchange rates. Export and import volumes were also found to be lower under the dual exchange rate regime, relative to the freely floating exchange rate regime. In accordance with export-led growth strategies, exports were found to be higher and imports lower under a managed floating exchange rate regime. It is therefore recommended that South Africa revert to a more managed exchange rate regime, until the South African economy is developed to accommodate a freely floating exchange rate regime.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-85
Author(s):  
Vesna Bucevska ◽  
Goran Mojanoski

AbstractThis paper aims to evaluate the relationship of real exchange rates of domestic currencies with macroeconomic variables in Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia by using econometric approaches. Macedonia is characterized by the regime of a fixed exchange rate, Croatia is characterized by a managed floating exchange rate, while Serbia is characterized by the regime of a floating exchange rate. The choice of an exchange rate regime is an important aspect of economic management, in order to ensure competitiveness, macroeconomic stability and development. Evaluation of the relationship of Croatian, Macedonian and Serbian real exchange rates is performed by employing the consistent methodology of vector error correction modelling (VECM). According to the results of the analyses of the real exchange rates on the long run, the selected independent variables have long-run causality in case of the real exchange rate of Croatian Kuna. In case of Macedonian Denar and Serbian Dinar the VECM is inappropriate.


2020 ◽  
Vol 130 (630) ◽  
pp. 1715-1728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torfinn Harding ◽  
Radoslaw Stefanski ◽  
Gerhard Toews

Abstract We estimate the effect of giant oil and gas discoveries on bilateral real exchange rates. A giant discovery with the value of 10% of a country’s GDP appreciates the real exchange rate by 1.5% within ten years following the discovery. The appreciation starts before production begins and the non-traded component of the real exchange rate drives the appreciation. Labour reallocates from the traded goods sector to the non-traded goods sector, leading to changes in labour productivity. These findings provide direct evidence on the channels central to the theories of the Dutch disease and the Balassa–Samuelson effect.


2012 ◽  
Vol 232 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Frenkel ◽  
Isabell Koske

SummaryThis paper derives equilibrium real exchange rates for the EU member countries that joined in 2004 and in 2007. Our analysis is based on the natural real exchange rate approach and uses data for the period 1980-2007. We employ a two-step estimation strategy to deal with the limited availability and reliability of data from these countries. We first estimate the model for a panel of 17 OECD countries and then apply the estimated relationship to the new EU member countries. While the model does not support the appreciation of some of the examined currencies in 2005-2007, the development of several other currencies of the CEECs appears to be fairly in line with our NATREX estimates.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hem C. Basnet ◽  
Puneet Vatsa ◽  
Subhash Sharma

This study explores the long- and short-run movement between oil prices and the real exchange rates of two large oil-exporting countries – Canada and Norway. Cointegration and serial correlation common features tests are jointly used to identify the long-term common trend and short-term common cycles. Our test results find that oil prices and the real exchange rates of the Canadian Dollar and the Norwegian Krone have two shared trends and one shared cycle. The trend–cycle decomposition shows a great deal of positive comovement among the trend and cyclical components. The two currencies show economic dynamics very similar to crude oil prices. They do not exhibit any qualitative differences in the trajectory of the trend and cycles when controlling for different crude oil prices. Our results indicate that oil price fluctuations play significant role in explaining the exchange rate movements of oil-exporting countries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Burçak Polat ◽  
Antonio Rodríguez Andrés

Although the positive socio-economic effects of remittances for recipient countries in the short term are unmistakable, inflows of remittances may at the same time exert adverse effects on the trade competitiveness of an economy, by appreciating the real exchange rate. This phenomenon is characterised as an instance of the ‘Dutch disease’ – the negative impact of windfall revenue inflows on the competitiveness of other tradable sectors and hence on overall economic growth. While the real effect of workers’ remittances on real exchange rates in a recipient economy is still a controversial issue, several studies have analysed evidence for the existence of the ‘Dutch disease’ phenomenon in various sets of countries. The main objective of this study is to examine whether remittance flows have had any adverse effect on the international trade competitiveness of a selected group of developing countries during the period from 1995 to 2014. Using a one-step system Generalised Method of Moments specification within a simultaneous equation approach, it shows that remittance flows depreciate the real exchange rate at their levels and that the lagged value of remittances create the Dutch disease for this country group. In addition, we confirm that while trade openness and world real interest rates contribute to a depreciation in real exchange rates, gross domestic product per capita and net Official Development Aid inflows tend to appreciate real exchange rates. A policy implication is that trade liberalisation policies that lower tariff rates on capital imports and new export-oriented incentive programmes should be accompanied by measures designed to prevent appreciation in the real exchange rate: steps in this direction such as recent macroeconomic and prudential capital flow management initiatives are briefly referenced. JEL Codes: F20, F21, F22, F23


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oghenovo Adewale Obrimah

Relative to free floating exchange rate regimes, I find the adoption of a hybrid exchange rate regime induces alternate monetary policy responses within the context of new Keynesian theory. Specifically, while the efficiency with which an economy is managed can be derived from comparisons of effects of inflation or balance of payments on exchange rates within a cross-section of countries that run free floating exchange rate regimes, this is not the case within a cross-section of countries that operate hybrid exchange rate regimes. In countries that operate hybrid exchange rate regimes, the efficiency with which an economy is managed is derived from comparisons of the effects of exchange rates on inflation or balance of payments situations. In so far as measurement of economic distortions are concerned, while relations between deposit or lending interest rates and inflows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into countries with hybrid exchange rate regimes yield insights into the extent to which inflows of foreign capital induce distortionary effects on price equilibriums, these relations do not yield similar insights within a cross-section of countries that run free floating exchange rate regimes. These findings, generated within the context of new Keynesian theory, identify theoretically appropriate differences in benchmarking of economic efficiency conditional on differences in exchange rate regimes.


2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (4II) ◽  
pp. 577-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaista Alam ◽  
Muhammad Sabihuddin Butt ◽  
Azhar Iqbal

The role of exchange rate policy in economic development has been the subject of much debate and controversy in the development literature. Interest rates and exchange rates are usually viewed as important in the transmission of monetary impulses to the real economy. In the short run the standard view of academics and policy-makers is that a monetary expansion lowers the interest rate and rises the exchange rate, with these price changes then affecting the level and composition of aggregate demand. Frequently, these influences are described as the liquidity effects of monetary expansion, viewed as the joint effect of providing larger quantities of money to the private sector. Popular theories of exchange-rate determination also predict a link between real exchange rates and real interest rate differentials. These theories combine the uncovered interest parity relationship with the assumption that the real exchange rate deviates from its long-run level only temporarily. Under these assumptions, shocks to the real exchange rate—which are often viewed as caused by shocks to monetary policy—are expected to reverse themselves over time. This study investigates the long-run relationship between real exchange rates and real interest rate differentials using recently developed panel cointegration technique. Although this kind of relationship has been studied by a number of researchers,1 very little evidence in support of the relationship has been reported in the case of developing countries. For example, Meese and Rogoff (1988) and Edison and Pauls (1993), among others, used the Engle-Granger cointegration method and fail to establish a clear long-run relationship in their analysis.


Author(s):  
Amalia Morales-Zumaquero

This paper tries to analyze the sources of the real exchange rate fluctuations for a set of advanced economies and Central and Eastern European transition economies. To address this, in a first step, we compute two measures of the share of the variance of the real exchange rate accounted for movements in the relative prices of traded goods between the countries. One measure is based on R2 coefficient and the other one is based on the mean-squared error (MSE) of the changes in the real exchange rate. In a second step, we estimate structural (identified) vector autoregression (SVAR) models, and decompose real and nominal exchange rate movements into those caused by real and nominal shocks. In a third step, we complete previous ones with an impulse-response analysis. Three central messages are derived from results: (1) for transition economies, under regimes of managed nominal exchange rates, the relative price of non-traded goods explain a large percentage of the variance of the real exchange rate; (2) there is evidence of instability in the variance decomposition of the real exchange rates for advanced economies across samples, and (3) as result of diverse fiscal and monetary policies in transition economies, real exchange rates in some economies are driven mostly by real shocks while in others are driven mostly by nominal shocks.


Author(s):  
Harold L. Cole

This chapter discusses exchanges and the different types of exchange rate regimes. It describes how exchange rates impact on real exchange rates, and how movements in the real exchange rate are associated with boom-bust cycles. It also discusses interest parity.


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