international payment and exchange

international payment and exchange

Introduction
international exchange also called  foreign exchange 

      respectively, any payment made by one country to another and the market in which national currencies are bought and sold by those who require them for such payments. Countries may make payments in settlement of a trade debt, for capital investment, or for other purposes. Other transactions may involve exporters, importers, multinational corporations, or persons wishing to send money to friends or relatives. The reasons for such payments, the methods of making them, and accounting for them are matters of importance for economists and national governments.

      Economic life does not stop at national boundaries but flows back and forth across them. The money of one country, however, cannot as a rule be used in another country; the flow of payments must be interrupted at national boundaries by exchange transactions in which one national money is converted into another. These transactions serve to cover payments so long as there is a balance (balance of payments) between them: local money can be exchanged against foreign money only insofar as there is a counterbalancing offer of foreign money in exchange.

      In China and other countries with centralized economic planning, there are no legal private markets for foreign exchange; in those countries the state has a monopoly of the business of foreign trade, which is generally conducted through formal agreements on a country-by-country basis. While the currencies of the Communist countries have official par values, these bear no particular relationship to their purchasing power or to the prices at which goods are exchanged. The international economic relationships of those countries therefore fall outside the scope of this discussion.

Balance-of-payments accounting
      The balance-of-payments accounts provide a record of transactions between the residents of one country and the residents of foreign nations. The two types of accounts used are the current account and the capital account.

The current account
      When using balance-of-payments statistics, it is important to understand their basic concepts. The balance of payments includes, among other things, payments for goods and services; these are often referred to as the balance of trade, but the expression has been used in a variety of ways. In order to be more specific, some authorities have taken to using the expression “merchandise balance,” which unmistakably refers to trade in goods and excludes services and other occasions of international payment.

      Figures for the merchandise balance often quote exports valued on an FOB (free on board) basis and imports valued on a CIF basis (including cost, insurance, and freight to the point of destination). This swells the import figures relative to the export figures by the amount of the insurance and freight included. The reason for this practice has been that in many countries the trade statistics have been based on customs house data, which naturally include insurance and freight costs for imports but not for exports. The authorities have more recently made a point of providing estimates of imports valued on an FOB basis.

      Another expression, “balance of goods and services,” is often used. The British, however, continue to use the term invisibles (invisible trade) for current services entering into international transactions. For many years the “visible” (visible trade) balance was taken to be equivalent to exports quoted FOB and imports CIF as explained above. The British authorities have more recently instituted another linguistic usage by which the visible balance is equivalent to the true merchandise balance. The old usage still lingers on in the less-expert literature.

      And so the total current account is the balance (balance of trade) of goods (merchandise) and services. The United Kingdom includes unilateral transfers among invisibles and in the current account. The United States statistics, more correctly, show them under a separate heading.

      Services include such items as payments for shipping and civil aviation, travel, expenditures (including military) by the home government abroad and expenditures by foreign governments at home, interest and profits and dividends on investments, payments in respect of insurance, earnings of banking, merchanting, brokerage, telecommunications and postal services, films and television, royalties payable by branches, subsidiaries and associated companies, agency expenses in regard to advertising and other commercial services, expenditures by journalists and students, construction work abroad for which local payment is made and, conversely, earnings of temporary workers such as entertainers and domestic workers, and professional consultants' fees. This list contains the more important items but is not comprehensive.

      Among unilateral transfers the more important are outright aid by governments, subscriptions to international agencies, grants by charitable foundations, and remittances by immigrants to their former home countries.

The capital account
      There is also the capital account, which includes both long-term and short-term capital movements.

Long-term flows
      Long-term capital movement divides into direct investments (in plant and equipment) and portfolio investments (in securities). In the 19th century direct investment in plant and equipment was preponderant. The United Kingdom was by far the most important contributor to direct investment overseas. In the early part of the century it even contributed to the industrial development of the United States; later its attention shifted to South America, Russia, other European countries, and India. Investment in what came to be called the “Commonwealth” and “Empire,” not prominent at that time, became very important in the 20th century. The other countries of western Europe also made important contributions to direct investment overseas.

      The most important items of direct investment were railways and other basic installations. In early stages direct investment may help developing countries to balance their payments, but in later stages there will have to be a flow of interest and profit in the opposite direction back to the investing country. The United Kingdom is frequently cited as the country whose overseas investments were most helpful for developing countries because its rapidly growing population and small cultivable land area permitted it to develop large net imports of food and to run corresponding deficits on its merchandise account. The complementary surplus this generated in the developing countries from which the imports came enabled them to pay the interest and profit on British capital without straining their balances of payments.

      Between World War I and World War II the United States began to take a more active interest in overseas investment, but this was not always well-advised. After the great world slump, which started in 1929, international investment almost ceased for lack of profit opportunities.

      After World War II the United States began to build up a leading position as overseas investor. The process accelerated in 1956 and afterward, both on direct investment and on portfolio investment accounts. This may have been partly due to the desire of U.S. firms to have plants inside the European Economic Community. Other countries also found more opportunities for capital export than there had been in the interwar period. The United Kingdom gave special attention to the Commonwealth. During the 1970s and 1980s Japan became a major overseas investor, financing its foreign investments with the funds accumulated with its large current account surpluses. The U.S. international position changed sharply in the 1980s. As a result of its large current account deficits, the United States accumulated large overseas debts. Its position changed from that of major net creditor (it had larger investments abroad than foreign nations had in the United States) to that of the largest debtor nation. Its liabilities to foreign nations came to exceed its foreign assets by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Short-term flows
      A very important distinction must be drawn between the short-term capital that flows in the normal course of industrial and commercial development and that which flows because of exchange-rate movements. The first class of short-term capital may be thought of as going in the train of direct long-term investment. A parent company may desire from time to time to supply its branch or affiliate with working capital. There may also be repayments from time to time. The second type of short-term capital flow occurs because of expectations of changes in exchange rates. For example, if people expect that the price of the dollar will fall in terms of the Japanese yen, they have an incentive to sell dollars and buy yen.

      An international capital market developed in the 1960s dealing in what are known as Eurocurrencies, of which much the most important was the Eurodollar. The prefix Euro is used because initially the market largely centred on the countries of Europe, but it has by no means been confined to them. Japan and the Middle Eastern oil states have been important dealers. While these short-term lendings normally move across national frontiers, they do not directly involve foreign exchange transactions. They may, however, indirectly cause such transactions to take place.

      The nature of the market is as follows: In the ordinary course of affairs, an Italian, for example, acquiring dollars—say from exports or from a legacy—would sell these dollars for his own currency. But he may decide to deposit the dollars at his bank instead, with an instruction not to sell them for cash but to repay him in dollars at a later date. Thus the bank has dollars in hand and a commitment to pay them out in, say, three months. It may then proceed to lend these dollars to another bank, anywhere in the world. Since the lending and borrowing is done in dollars, no foreign exchange transaction is directly involved. The sum total of all operations of this sort is the Eurodollar market. It is not centred on any particular place and has no formal rules of procedure or constitution. It consists of a network of deals conducted by telephone and telex around the world. U.S. residents themselves lend to and borrow from this market.

      One may ask why lenders and borrowers use this market in preference to more conventional methods of lending and borrowing. Ordinarily the answer is because they can get more favourable terms, since the market works on very narrow margins between lending and borrowing rates. This involves expertise; London has played the most important part in the creation of the market. The lender hopes to get a better rate of interest than he would on a time deposit in the United States (restrictions limiting interest payable on U.S. time deposits are said to have been a contributing cause of the growth of the market during the 1960s). At the same time, normally, the borrower will find that he has to pay a lower rate than he would on a loan from a commercial bank in the United States.

      This has not always been the case. In 1969 Eurodollar interest rates went to very high levels. One reason for this was the set of restrictions imposed by the United States on its commercial banks lending abroad. The second was that although the prime lending rates of the principal U.S. banks might be below Eurodollar rates, many individuals, including U.S. citizens, found that they could not get loans from their banks because of the “credit squeeze.”

      Because this form of international lending does not involve the sale of one currency for another, it does not enter into balance-of-payments accounts. Nonetheless it may have a causal effect on the course of the exchanges. For instance, the Italian cited above might have chosen to sell his dollars had he not been tempted by the more attractive Eurodollar rate of interest. In this case, the market causes dollars not to be sold that otherwise would have been. Others who have liquid cash at their disposal for a time may even buy dollars in order to invest them in the market at short term. That would be helpful to the dollar. There are countercases. An individual who has to make a payment in dollars but lacks cash may borrow the dollars in the Eurodollar market, when otherwise he would have got credit in his own country and used that to buy dollars; in this case the market is damaging to the dollar because its existence prevents someone from buying dollars in the regular way.

Assessing the balance
      To summarize, the overall balance of payments comprises the current account (merchandise and services), unilateral transfers (gifts, grants, remittances, and so on), and the capital account (long-term and short-term capital movements). If payments due in exceed those due out, a country is said to be in overall surplus; and when payments due out exceed payments due in, it is in overall deficit. The surplus or deficit must be balanced by a monetary movement in the opposite direction, and consequently the overall balance including monetary movements must always be equal.

      In practice, great difficulties have been found in assessing whether a country is in deficit or in surplus. It is often important to establish this with a view to possible corrective measures. The United Kingdom stresses the combined balance of current and long-term capital account—i.e., excluding short-term capital. Such a balance, however, omits short-term movements that occur in the ordinary course of business, which may be called “normal” and which ought in principle to be included. On the other hand it is not desirable to include equilibrating or disequilibrating capital movements. These occur in consequence of a deficit (or surplus), actual or anticipated. But there may be great statistical difficulty in distinguishing between the normal short-term capital flows and those that are consequential on a surplus or deficit.

      It has been noted that the overall balance, including monetary movements, must be equal, but it usually happens that the figures do not in fact balance. U.S. statisticians call the residual figure that has to be inserted to square the account “errors and omissions.” If the average value of this figure over a substantial period, such as 10 years—an even longer period may have to be taken if a country is in persistent surplus or deficit—has a positive or negative value of substantial amount, then it may be taken to constitute genuine items that have escaped the statistical net. These may legitimately be included in assessing whether a country is in genuine surplus or deficit and whether corrective measures are needed.

      The “errors and omissions” item is extremely volatile from year to year and often very large. Such movements up and down are probably caused by precautionary short-term capital movements. There have been periods when a minus item in the U.S. account was rather strikingly associated with a plus item in the U.K. account, and conversely. Accordingly, in the short term, the “errors and omissions” item should not be included in assessing whether a country is in surplus or deficit.

      It has been noted that the United Kingdom stresses the balance of current and long-term capital accounts (which include unilateral transfers). The U.S. position is less clear. It traditionally published two overall balance-of-payments measures: the “Liquidity Balance” and the “Official Settlements Balance.”

      In distinguishing between monetary and nonmonetary items, the Liquidity Balance included any increase in the holding of short-term dollar securities abroad as part of the U.S. deficit during the period; but it did not include as counterweight any increase in short-term foreign claims held by U.S. resident banks or others (apart from official holdings). Thus, in this respect the treatment was asymmetrical. The rationale for this was precautionary. The argument was that short-term dollar assets held abroad outside the central banks might at any time be sold in the market or turned in to the central banks of the respective countries and thus constitute a drain, or the threat of a drain, on U.S. reserves. On the other hand the corresponding foreign short-term assets held by U.S. resident banks or others were not readily mobilizable by U.S. authorities for making payments. Thus by this reckoning, if during a period non-central-bank foreign holdings of short-term dollar securities and resident non-central-bank U.S. holdings of short-term foreign securities went up by an equal amount, the situation would be shown as having deteriorated, since the former class (liabilities) were a threat to U.S. reserves, while the latter class (assets) could not be mobilized by U.S. authorities to meet such a threat. Thus, though the motive for this asymmetrical treatment may have been understandable, it was statistically unsatisfactory and also unsatisfactory as a guide to corrective action. This balance is thus mainly of historical interest, and it has not been commonly used since 1971.

      The U.S. Official Settlements Balance reckoned an increase in non-central-bank foreign holdings of short-term dollar assets as an inflow of short-term capital into the United States; similarly an increase in U.S. resident holdings of short-term foreign assets was an outflow of short-term capital. This was a logical treatment. But the balance thus defined proved in the 1960s to be extremely volatile. This was due to large movements of funds between foreign central banks and non-central-bank foreign holders, associated with the rise of the Eurodollar market. Oscillations of this kind do not represent changes in the fundamental balance that are needed in order to determine whether corrective measures are required. It may well be that the British method of omitting short-term capital movements altogether in the assessment of surplus or deficit is, although imperfect, the most practical available. Since exchange rates began to float in the early 1970s, the major industrial countries have paid much less attention to overall balance-of-payments measures. The current account and the trade account are the two measures that are now most commonly used in developing countries.

Sir Roy Forbes Harrod Paul Wonnacott

Adjusting for fundamental disequilibrium
      A “fundamental disequilibrium” exists when outward payments have a continuing tendency not to balance inward payments. A disequilibrium may occur for various reasons. Some may be grouped under the head of structural change (resulting from changes in tastes, habits, institutions, technology, etc.). A fundamental imbalance may occur if wages and other costs rise faster in relation to productivity in one country than they do in others. Imbalance may also result when aggregate demand runs above the supply (supply and demand) potential of a country, forcing prices up or raising imports. A war may have a profoundly disturbing effect on a country's economy.

The classical view
      In the traditional “classical” view no intervention by the authorities was necessary to maintain external equilibrium, except for their readiness to convert currency into gold (or silver) upon demand. The system was supposed to work automatically. If a country had a deficit, gold would flow out, and the consequent reduction in the domestic money supply would cause prices to move downward. This would stimulate exports and tend to reduce imports. The process would continue until the deficit was eliminated. Classical doctrine did not embody a clear-cut theory about international capital movements. It was usually assumed that the trade balance (more strictly, balance on goods and services) would be tailored to accommodate any capital movement that occurred. Thus, if the country was exporting capital, gold flows would cause prices to move to such a level that exports minus imports would be equal to the capital flow; equilibrium in the overall balance was automatically secured.

      In due course the classical scheme of thought came under criticism. Some critics asked if an outflow or inflow of specie would necessarily have a sufficient effect on the price level to ensure an equal balance of payments. More important, a reduction in the money supply, it was pointed out, might have a side effect on the level of economic activity. Some critics went further and argued that this side effect would be stronger than the effect on prices to such a degree as to cause unemployment to rise to an undesirable level.

Contemporary views
Monetary (monetary policy) and fiscal measures
      The belief grew that positive action by governments might be required as well. The doctrine was first related to monetary policy in particular. The idea was that interest-rate adjustments should be combined with open-market operations by a central bank to ensure that the domestic money supply and borrowing facilities were conducive to external long-period equilibrium. After World War II the idea came to be widely held that government budget policy (usually called fiscal policy) should be brought in to assist monetary policy. For instance, if aggregate domestic demand was running so high as to cause rising prices, this should be reduced both by having a tight monetary policy and by increasing taxation more than expenditure or reducing expenditure without reducing taxation. The correct apportionment of this task between the monetary and fiscal arms is still a subject of discussion.

      Nor is there yet agreement about the scope of these policies or their ability to secure fundamental equilibrium in all cases. There is probably agreement that when overall demand is running in excess of the supply potential of the economy, it should be reduced by monetary and fiscal policies. There is difference of opinion, however, as to whether the reduction of aggregate demand will bring external payments into balance in all cases. For instance, a country may have a deficit owing to some underlying economic change (such as a shift in the pattern of world trade), even if domestic demand is not above the supply potential and prices are not rising. In this case, policies designed to reduce domestic demand (commonly called deflationary policies) would cause unemployment. Some hold that, if there is an external deficit, deflationary policies should be pursued to whatever extent may be needed to eliminate the deficit. Others hold that such a policy is socially unacceptable.

      Opinions differ also about how deflationary measures work to improve the external balance. Some hold that they work mainly by reducing domestic activity and thereby the amount of imported materials that a country needs and the amount of income that people can afford to spend on imported goods. If this were the whole effect of a deflationary policy, it would improve the external balance only in proportion to the amount by which it increases unemployment. Those who hold that this is the only manner in which deflation affects the external balance are especially opposed to relying on deflationary policies alone to eliminate a deficit in conditions in which aggregate domestic demand is not running above the supply potential. Some hold that a reduction of home demand also helps because it makes producers look around more eagerly for export markets (and increase their selling efforts in the home market). This appears to be doubtful, however. There is further disagreement on the extent to which deflationary policies influence the course of prices. If aggregate demand is running above the supply potential of the economy, it is highly probable that deflationary policies will slow the increase of prices and thus make a country more competitive with foreign suppliers. There is not the same agreement about the effects when demand is initially running below the supply potential of the economy. Some hold that a deflationary policy, if pushed hard enough, will infallibly slow up price increases and so help the country's external balance. Others hold that it will not, and some even argue that higher interest rates and higher taxes (weapons of deflation) can cause prices to rise. Thus, it is not absolutely clear that monetary and fiscal policies will in all cases suffice to cure an external deficit, at least without socially unacceptable results.

      There is also the opposite case of countries with a trade surplus. It is clear that these countries will be unwilling to encourage policies that cause domestic prices to rise. Price inflation is a social evil and politically unpopular.

      In the case of surplus countries, the same distinction must be made between the situation in which aggregate demand is fully up to or above the supply potential of the economy and that in which it is not. In the former case a further increase in demand would almost certainly have an inflationary effect; accordingly, surplus countries in this condition will be unwilling to use monetary and fiscal policies to eliminate their external surpluses. On the other hand, if aggregate demand is running below supply potential, then a surplus country might reasonably be asked to increase aggregate demand by monetary and fiscal policies on the view that the increase will not cause inflation but will tend to remove the external surplus by inducing more imports and possibly causing producers to be less active in their selling efforts abroad.

      Prices may rise even when aggregate demand is not in excess of the supply potential. This may be due to wage increases and other factors. Some hold that this can be dealt with through efforts to discourage excessive wage increases by a direct approach, which may consist of a propaganda campaign on the evil effects of wage-price inflation, together with guidelines governing rates of wage increases. This direct attempt to deal with the problem is generally known as “incomes policy.”

Changes in exchange rates (exchange rate)
      Exchange-rate movements work by making the products of a deficit country more price competitive or those of a surplus country less price competitive. Any program that seeks to rectify an imbalance by changing the level of prices will be effective only if demand is “price elastic.” In other words, if the offer of an article at a lower price does not cause an increase in demand for it more than in proportion to the fall in price, the proceeds from its export will fall rather than increase. Economists believe that price elasticities are sufficiently great for most goods so that price reductions will increase revenues in the long run. The outcome is not quite so certain in the short run.

      A fast means of changing relative price levels is devaluation, which is likely to have a quick effect on the prices of imported goods. This will raise the cost of living and may thereby accelerate demands for higher wages. If granted, these will probably cause rises in the prices of domestically produced goods. A “wage–price spiral” may follow. If this spiral moves too quickly it may frustrate the intended effect of the devaluation, namely that of enabling the country to offer its goods at lower prices in terms of foreign currency. This means that if the beneficial effects of a devaluation are not gathered in quickly, there may be no beneficial effect at all.

      The authorities of a country that has just devalued must therefore be especially active in preventing or moderating domestic price increases. They will need to use the other policy measures discussed above. Devaluation (or the downward movement of a flexible rate) is thus not a remedy that makes other forms of official policy unnecessary. Some have argued that, if exchange rates were allowed to float, nothing further would have to be done officially to bring the external balance into equilibrium, but this is a minority view.

      One further point must be made regarding exchange-rate movements. It has been found in practice that governments resist upward valuation more than they do devaluation. Under the IMF system prior to 1973, devaluations in fact were larger and more frequent than upward valuations. This had an unfortunate consequence. It meant that the aggregate amount of price inflation in deficit countries resorting to devaluation as a remedy was not offset by equivalent price decreases in the surplus countries. Therefore this system had a bias toward worldwide inflation.

Trade restrictions
      Since World War II the major industrial countries have attempted to reduce interferences with international trade. This policy, by extending the international division of labour, should increase world economic welfare. An exception has had to be allowed in favour of the less-developed countries. In the early stages of the development of a country, the effectiveness and feasibility of the three types of adjustment mechanism discussed above, particularly monetary and fiscal policies, may be much less than in the more advanced countries. The less-developed countries may therefore be driven to protection or the control of imports, for lack of any other weapon, if they are to stay solvent. It has already been noted that, even in the case of a more advanced country, the effectiveness and appropriateness of the above-mentioned adjustment mechanisms are not always certain. Thus, there is no certainty that some limitation on foreign trade and on the international division of labour may not be a lesser evil than the consequences that might follow from a vigorous use of the other adjustment mechanisms, such as unemployment.

Restrictions on capital (capital and interest) exports
      Interference with capital movements is generally considered a lesser evil than interference with the free flow of trade. The theory of the optimum international movement of capital has not yet been thoroughly developed, but there may be a presumption in favour of absolutely free movement. The matter is not quite certain; for instance, it might be desirable from the point of view of the world optimum to channel the outflow of capital from a high-saving country into the less-developed countries, although the level of profit obtainable in other high-saving countries might be greater. Or it might be expedient to restrain wealthy individuals in less-developed countries, where domestic saving was in notably short supply, from sending their funds to high-saving countries.

      While there may be good reasons for interfering with the free international flow of capital in certain cases, it is not obvious that the outflow of capital from, or inflow of capital into, a country should be tailored to surpluses or deficits in current external accounts. It may be that in some cases the sound remedy for a deficit (or surplus) is to adopt adjustment measures such as those discussed above, bearing upon current items, rather than taking the easier way of adjusting capital movements to the de facto balance on current account.

Foreign exchange markets (market)

Buying and selling currencies
      A foreign exchange market is one in which those who want to buy a certain currency in exchange for another currency and those who want to move in the opposite direction are able to do business with each other. The motives of those desiring to make such exchanges are various. Some are concerned with the import or export of goods between one country and another, some with the purchase and sale of services. Some wish to move capital from one area to the other, and some wish to make gifts (the latter including government aid and gifts by charitable foundations).

      In any organized market there must be intermediaries who are prepared to “quote a price,” in this case a rate of exchange between two currencies. These intermediaries must move the price quoted in such a way to permit them to make the supply of each currency equal to the demand for it and thus to balance their books. In an important foreign exchange market the price quoted is constantly on the move.

      An exchange rate is the price of one currency in terms of another. For example, in the market for the British pound sterling (£) in exchange for U.S. dollars ($), the exchange rate might be £1 = $2. This price may also be quoted the other way around; that is, $1 = £0.50.

Determination of exchange rates
      In a foreign exchange market, there may be a standard, government-determined price, or par value. This par value may be quoted in terms of another currency; for example, the par value of the pound was £1 = $2.80 between 1949 and 1967. In 1973 many governments abandoned their par values and let their exchange rates be determined by the forces of demand and supply. An exchange rate determined in this way, without being tied to an official par, is called a flexible or floating exchange rate; in contrast, an exchange rate is said to be pegged if the government ties it to par value.

      Historically, countries often tied their currencies to gold, setting their official parities in terms of that metal. Under this historical gold standard, the gold equivalence of currencies determined exchange rates. For example, the British pound was worth 4.86 times as much gold as the U.S. dollar during the period prior to World War I. The exchange rate remained at or quite close to the mint parity of £1 = $4.86. Nobody would pay much more than $4.86 for a British pound, nor take much less.

      Historically, there were also periods of bimetallism, when the gold standard was combined with a silver standard, and currencies were fixed in terms of both gold and silver. The bimetallic standard was given up by most of its adherents (the United States, France, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and Belgium) in the 1870s.

The gold standard

The function of gold
      If the demand by those holding a particular currency, say sterling (pound sterling), for another currency, say the dollar, exceeds the demand of dollar holders for sterling, the dollar will tend to rise in the foreign exchange market. Under the gold standard (gold-exchange standard) system there was a limit to the amount by which it could rise or fall. If a sterling holder wanted to make a payment in dollars, the most convenient way for him to procure the dollars would be in the foreign exchange market. But under the gold standard he had another option; i.e., he had a legal right to obtain gold from the authorities in exchange for paper currency at the established par value of that currency and remit the gold to the other country, where he would have a legal right to obtain its currency in exchange for bars of gold at the official valuation. Thus, it would not be advantageous for a sterling holder to obtain dollars in the foreign exchange market if the quotation for a dollar there exceeded parity by more than the cost of remitting gold. The exchange rate at which it became cheaper to remit gold rather than use the foreign exchange market was known as the “gold-export point.” There was also a “gold-import point” determined on similar lines.

      Most of those seeking dollars, however, did not undertake to remit gold even if the dollar quotation was at the gold-export point. The remission of gold was handled by arbitrageurs (arbitrage). These are people who buy and sell currencies simultaneously on different exchanges in order to profit by small differences in the quoted rates. Their action would reduce the supply of sterling, since they would be selling sterling for gold to the British authorities, and increase the supply of dollars, since they would acquire dollars in exchange for gold from the U.S. authorities. The arbitrageurs would carry out these operations to the extent needed to prevent the scarcity of the dollar from raising its sterling price above the gold-export point for the United Kingdom, and conversely. At the same time, the gold reserve of the British authorities would be diminished, and the gold reserve of the U.S. authorities increased.

      The international gold standard provided an automatic adjustment mechanism, that is, a mechanism that prevented any country from running large and persistent deficits or surpluses. It worked in the following manner. A country running a deficit would see its currency depreciate to the gold-export point. Arbitrage would then result in a gold flow from the deficit to the surplus country. In other words, the deficit would be settled in gold.

      The gold flow had an effect on the money system. When gold flowed into the banking system of the surplus country, its money stock rose as a consequence. On the other side, when a deficit country lost gold, its money stock fell. The falling money stock caused deflation in the deficit country; the rising money stock caused inflation in the surplus country. Thus, the goods of the deficit country became more competitive on world markets. Its exports rose, and its imports declined, correcting the balance-of-payments deficit.

Problems with the gold standard
      Although this adjustment process worked automatically, it was not problem-free. The adjustment process could be very painful, particularly for the deficit country. As its money stock automatically fell, aggregate demand fell. The result was not just deflation (a fall in prices) but also high unemployment. In other words, the deficit country could be pushed into a recession or depression by the gold standard. A related problem was one of instability. Under the gold standard, gold was the ultimate bank reserve. A withdrawal of gold from the banking system could not only have severe restrictive effects on the economy but could also lead to a run on banks by those who wanted their gold before the bank ran out.

      These twin problems materialized during the Great Depression of the 1930s; the gold standard contributed to the instability and unemployment of that decade. Because of the strains caused by the gold standard, it was gradually abandoned. In 1931, faced with a run on its gold, Britain abandoned the gold standard; the British authorities were no longer committed to redeem their currency with gold. In early 1933 the United States followed suit. Although the tie of the dollar to gold was partially restored at a later date, one very important feature of the old gold standard was omitted. The public was not permitted to exchange dollars for gold; only foreign central banks were allowed to do so. In this way the U.S. authorities avoided the risk of a run on their gold stocks by a panicky public.

      The International Monetary Fund (IMF), founded at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, is the official organization for securing international monetary cooperation. It has done useful work in various fields, such as research and the publication of statistics and the tendering of monetary advice to less-developed countries. It has also conducted valuable consultations with the more developed countries.

      Of particular interest to this discussion is the Fund's system of Drawing Rights, which permits countries in temporary deficit to draw supplies of foreign currency according to predetermined quotas. These extra supplies of currency give a country more time in which to adjust its balance of payments and so avoid taking unsound or unneighbourly measures like import restrictions for lack of enough reserves to tide it over a difficulty. The mechanism is as follows: members of the Fund are required to make initial deposits according to their quotas, which are based on the country's national income, monetary reserves, trade balance, and other economic factors. Quotas are payable partially in Special Drawing Rights (see below Special Drawing Rights (international payment and exchange)) and partially in a country's own currency. A country's quota closely approximates its voting power, the amount of foreign exchange it may purchase (Drawing Rights), and its allotment of Special Drawing Rights. The Fund makes its stock of members' currencies available to member countries that wish to draw upon their quotas. When creditor countries are presented with their own currencies previously deposited by them with the Fund, they are obliged to take them in final discharge of debts owed by other member countries. Since they previously deposited these currencies themselves they are in effect getting nothing from the debtor countries in respect of the debts owed to them, and their willingness to accept payment in this way is their contribution to the overall liquidity of the world system. Later the creditor countries may themselves become debtors and partake of the benefits. The debtors have to repay the Fund usually in three to five years. A country with more serious financial problems may draw as much as 140 percent of its quota during a three-year period, and repayment must be made between four to 10 years afterward.

      The exercise of Drawing Rights is subject to discussion and sometimes to conditions, except for drawings on what are called the reserve tranches (sums equal to the member's original deposits in its own currency and Special Drawing Rights), which are given “the overwhelming benefit of the doubt.” Countries are also free to draw without discussion up to the net amount to which they have previously been drawn upon by other countries.

      The quotas paid by members of the IMF are the primary source of income for the organization. Quotas for member countries are periodically reviewed and reevaluated according to the country's financial situation. General increases in quotas normally occur following the periodic reviews, although special reviews and increases sometimes occur for specific countries, such as Saudi Arabia in 1981. The IMF also borrows to supplement its quota resources. In 1981, for example, Saudi Arabia agreed to loan the Fund more than $8,000,000,000 over a two-year period, and an additional $1,300,000,000 was loaned by a group of countries. Between 1976 and 1980 about one-third of the Fund's gold holdings were sold at public auction to benefit the member developing countries. More than $4,600,000,000 was received from the gold sale; part of the revenue was made available to members according to their quotas, and part of the revenue was placed in a trust fund to dispense low-interest loans to developing countries.

Sir Roy Forbes Harrod Ed.
      The International Monetary Fund as it finally emerged from the wartime discussions was a much more modest undertaking than had originally been conceived by the British. An early British proposal would have required creditor countries to receive payment in paper money up to the total amount of all the quotas of all the debtor countries. This seemed to many to be more than it was fair to ask creditors to do. The United States claimed that for a number of years after the war it was likely to be in credit against the whole of the rest of the world, and so it was. Under the British plan they would have had to give an unconscionably large amount of credit, with no certainty of repayment. At that time it did not seem at all likely that the United States would ever go into deficit, which, of course, it eventually did.

The IMF system of parity (pegged) exchange rates
      When the IMF was established toward the end of World War II, it was based on a modified form of the gold standard. The system resembled the gold standard in that each country established a legal gold valuation for its currency. This valuation was registered with the International Monetary Fund. The gold valuations served to determine parities (parity) of exchange (exchange rate) between the different currencies. As stated above, such fixed currencies are said to be pegged to one another. It was also possible, as under the old gold standard, for the actual exchange quotation to deviate somewhat on either side of the official parity. There was agreement with the International Monetary Fund about the range, on either side of parity, within which a currency was allowed to fluctuate.

      But there was a difference in the technical mode of operation. The service of the arbitrageurs in remitting physical gold from country to country as needed was dispensed with. Instead the authorities were placed under an obligation to ensure that the actual exchange rates quoted within their own territories did not go outside the limits agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund. This they did by intervening in the foreign exchange market. If, for instance, the dollar was in short supply in London, the British authorities were bound to supply dollars to the market to whatever extent was needed to keep the sterling price of the dollar from rising above the agreed-upon limit. The same was true with the other currencies of the members of the International Monetary Fund. Thus, the obligation of the monetary authorities to supply the currency of any Fund member at a rate of exchange that was not above the agreed-upon limit took the place of the obligation under the old gold standard to give actual gold in exchange for currency.

      It would be inconvenient for the monetary authorities of a country to be continually watching the exchange rates in its market of all the different currencies. Most authorities confined themselves to watching the rate of their own currency against the dollar and supplying from time to time whatever quantity of dollars might be required. At this point the arbitrageurs (arbitrage) came into service again. They could be relied upon to operate in such a way that the exchange rates between the various currencies in the various foreign exchange markets could be kept mutually consistent. This use of the dollar by many monetary authorities caused it to be called a currency of “intervention.”

      The official fixing of exchange rates as limits on either side of parity, outside of which exchange-rate quotations were not allowed to fluctuate, bears a family resemblance to the gold points of the old gold standard system. The question naturally arose why, in devising a somewhat different system, it was considered desirable to keep this range of fluctuation. In the old system it arose necessarily out of the cost of remitting gold. Since there was no corresponding cost in the new system, why did the authorities decide not to have a fixed parity of exchange from which no deviation would be allowed? The answer was that there was convenience in having a range within which fluctuation was allowed. Supply and demand between each pair of currencies would not be precisely equal every day. There would always be fluctuations, and if there were one rigidly fixed rate of exchange the authorities would have to supply from their reserves various currencies to meet them. In addition to being inconvenient, this would require each country to maintain much larger reserves than would otherwise be necessary.

      Under a system of pegged exchange rates, short-term capital movements are likely to be equilibrating if people are confident that parities will be maintained. That is, short-term capital flows are likely to reduce the size of overall balance-of-payments deficits or surpluses. On the other hand, if people expect a parity to be changed, short-term capital flows are likely to be disequilibrating, adding to underlying balance-of-payments deficits or surpluses.

Equilibrating short-term capital movements
      Commercial banks (bank) and other corporations (corporation) involved in dealings across currency frontiers are usually able to see some (but not necessarily all) of their needs in advance. Their foreign exchange experts will watch the course of the exchanges closely and, if a currency is weak (i.e., below parity), advise their firms to take the opportunity of buying it, even if somewhat in advance of need. Conversely, if the currency is above parity but not expected to remain so indefinitely, they may recommend postponing purchases until a more favourable opportunity arises. These adjustments under the influence of common sense and self-interest have an equilibrating influence in foreign exchange markets. If a currency is temporarily weak, it is presumably because of seasonal, cyclical, or other temporary factors. If on such an occasion private enterprise takes the opportunity to buy the currency while it is cheap, that tends to bring demand up to equality with supply (supply and demand) and relieves the authorities from the need to intervene in order to prevent their currency from falling below the lower point whenever there is a temporary deficit in the balance of payments. As previously noted, when confidence in the fixed parity exchange rate drops and market participants expect a change in parity, short-term capital movements may be disequilibrating. (See below Disequilibrating capital movements (international payment and exchange).)

      Another equilibrating influence arises from the movements of short-term interest rates. When the authorities have to supply foreign currencies in exchange for the domestic currency, this causes a decline in the money supply in domestic circulation—unless the authorities deliberately take offsetting action. This decline in the money supply, which is similar to that occurring under the gold standard, tends to raise short-term interest rates in the domestic money market. This will bring an inflow of money from abroad to take advantage of the higher rates or, what amounts to the same thing, will discourage foreigners from borrowing in that country's money market since borrowing will have become more expensive. Thus, the interest-rate differential will cause a net movement of short-term funds in the direction required to offset the temporary deficit or, in the opposite case, to reduce a temporary surplus that is embarrassing to others. It must be stressed again that this equilibrating interest-rate mechanism implies confidence that the parity will not be altered in the near future.

      The helpful movement of interest rates may be reinforced by action of the monetary authorities, who by appropriate open-market operations may cause short-term interest rates to rise above the level that they would have attained under market forces and thus increase the equilibrating movement of short-term funds. The Bank of England provided the most notable example of the smooth and successful operation of this policy under the old gold standard during many decades before World War I.

Forward exchange
      The transactions in which one currency is exchanged directly for another are known as spot transactions. There can also be forward transactions, consisting of contracts to exchange one currency for another at a future date, perhaps three months ahead, but at a rate determined now. For instance, a German firm may have a commitment to pay a U.S. firm in dollars in three-months' time. It may not want to take the risk that the dollar will rise relative to the mark during the three months, so that it would have to surrender more marks in order to honour its commitment. It could of course buy the dollars right away and thus obviate this risk, but it may not have any spare cash and borrowing may be inconvenient. The firm has the alternative of buying dollars at a rate agreed upon now for which it does not have to surrender marks until three months have passed. Some firms have a regular routine procedure for covering all future commitments to be paid for in a foreign currency as soon as these are entered into. Of course, even a firm that does this may combine its routine procedure with a little judgment, for instance, if there are good reasons for believing that the foreign currency will become cheaper during the relevant period. And firms with multinational commitments will vary the distribution of their assets among different currencies in accordance with changing conditions. The forward-exchange rate will, like the spot rate, be continually varying. It is not usually identical with the spot rate but in normal times has a regular relation to it. This relation is determined as follows:

      Dealers in forward exchange usually balance their commitments; for instance, a contract to deliver forward marks can be offset against one to deliver forward dollars, and nothing more has to be done about it. If a particular dealer cannot manage this he will be in communication with another who may be in the opposite position. It may not, however, always be possible to offset every transaction. If this is not done, the dealer must make a spot purchase of the currency—say marks—in excess demand in the forward market. If he did not do this he would risk an exchange loss on some of his forward transactions. For the purpose of evaluating the forward-exchange rate to be asked in a particular deal, it is always correct to suppose that the deal is one that cannot be offset. If the dealer has to purchase marks on the spot, he can earn the rate of interest prevailing in Frankfurt until the time comes when he has to deliver the marks. Whether this is advantageous or not depends on whether the rate of interest in Frankfurt is higher or lower than that in New York City. If it is higher in Frankfurt, the dealer will normally quote a rate per forward mark that is lower than the spot rate; but if the rate of interest in Frankfurt is lower, then the forward mark will normally stand above the spot mark to compensate the dealer for having to employ his liquid funds in a less remunerative market. When the relation of the forward rate to the spot rate is determined by a comparison of the short-term interest rates in the two centres in the manner just described, the forward rate is said to be at “interest parity.”

      The question arises as to what particular interest rates are used to calculate the interest parity. There is a variety of practice. In previous times the rate of interest on U.S. Treasury bills and the rate of interest on British Treasury bills were used to determine the interest parity of the sterling price for forward dollars. More recently the interest rates on Eurodollars and Eurosterling have been used—that is, the interest on dollar and sterling accounts held by European banks.

      In normal times arbitrage may be expected to hold forward rates to their interest parities. There have been times, and even rather prolonged periods, in which the forward rate for a currency has fallen below (or risen above) its interest parity. This may happen when there is a large one-way movement of funds (such as when there is a lack of confidence in a particular currency). In some cases, such as a simultaneous multiple swapping of currencies, the arbitrager does not have to commit any funds, but in forward arbitrage funds have to be committed for a period of three months. It is true that an arbitrageur who had bought three-months' sterling could resell the sterling before the three months had elapsed, but if he did so he might have to accept a loss. If the one-way movement is very heavy there may be a shortage of funds available for forward arbitrage. Nonetheless the demand for forward sterling has to be kept equal to the supply of it, and if there is insufficient arbitrage for this purpose then a positive profit has to appear on the purchase of forward sterling; in other words, its price has to fall below the interest parity.

      If dealers in a forward currency cannot offset contracts for sale with contracts for purchase and find an excess of customers wishing to sell, the excess supply causes immediate pressure on the spot market, since arbitrageurs and others who supplement the forward demand for the weak currency must cover their positions by selling an equivalent amount spot. The only way in which the authorities can prevent an excess offer of their currency forward from causing an immediate drain on their reserves is by offering to buy it forward themselves, without simultaneously selling it spot. British authorities engaged in such operations during periods when sterling was weak, and similar operations have been conducted by other central banks in connection with swap agreements for mutual accommodation.

      The foregoing descriptions of the equilibrating movements of short-term funds have not applied when there has been a serious lack of confidence that a given parity will be maintained. Occasions of lack of confidence occurred much more frequently under the modified gold standard (International Monetary Fund) than they did under the old gold standard. The reason for this is simple. Under the old gold standard it was not expected that a country of good standing would alter the gold valuation of its currency (although in much earlier days “debasement” was common enough). A devaluation of the official gold content was regarded as not far removed from a declaration of bankruptcy, and it was assumed that a country would avoid it at all costs and in all times short of a major war or revolution. Under the International Monetary Fund this position was altered quite deliberately to allow a country whose payments were in “fundamental disequilibrium,” to propose a change of parity. This remedy was proposed at the Bretton Woods Conference (1944), which set up the International Monetary Fund, because it was thought to be better than alternative remedies, such as domestic deflation.

Disequilibrating capital movements
      Whatever its merits from a long-term point of view, the idea that it is quite respectable for a country to alter the par value of its currency in certain circumstances had disturbing effects on the movements of short-term funds—effects that may not have been clearly foreseen at the time of Bretton Woods. Such movements of funds were sometimes very large indeed. These movements were not equilibrating, like those described in relation to a parity in which there is confidence; on the contrary, they were disequilibrating. If a currency became weak—if the demand for it fell below the supply—this could give rise to the idea that the authorities having the weak currency might in due course decide to devalue it, as they were perfectly entitled, under International Monetary Fund principles, to do.

      Foreign exchange advisers to corporations had to watch for such possibilities and propose a readjustment of assets entailing a movement out of the weak currency. It was not necessary that there be, on an objective assessment, a probability (more than a 50 percent chance) that the currency in question had to be devalued. To provoke a disequilibrating movement of funds it was enough that there should be a small chance (much less than 50 percent) that it would be devalued. In strict theory, funds should be moved out of a given currency whenever the probability that it will be devalued outweighs the cost of moving the funds.

      If a firm or its affiliate has foreseeable commitments to make payments in a currency other than that of the area in which it operates, it may think it wise to “cover” its position by buying the currency at once, in either the spot or the forward market. Covering may take other forms also. If a contract to pay abroad is in the currency of the home, or paying, country, then the prospective foreign receiver of these funds will have to consider whether he should not cover his own position by selling the currency of the paying country forward. Payments in the opposite direction have also to be considered. If these are in the currency of the home country, the foreigner due to make the payment will consider whether he should cover his position by buying the currency of the home country forward. If the payment is in the foreign currency, then the firm in the home country due to receive it will consider whether to cover itself by selling the foreign currency forward. Thus, there are four main classes of covering. In normal times it is probable that not all positions are covered in these four ways, although it is not impossible that they should be.

      If a suspicion arises that a particular currency, say that of the home country, may be devalued (devaluation), then the position is radically changed. The following arguments apply in reverse to the case when it is believed that a particular currency may be valued upward. It is necessary to go through the four classes of cases. Members of the home country who normally cover their commitments to make payments in a foreign currency would clearly continue to do so. And those, if any, who do not habitually do so would be strongly advised to do so when there is a possibility that the home currency may be devalued. To take the second case—that of outward payments to be made in the home currency—the same applies: foreigners who normally sell it forward should continue to do so, and those who do not normally sell it forward would be strongly advised to do so lest the currency be devalued before the payment is made. Coming to the payments due to the home country, in the case of those to be made in the home currency, the foreigners who normally cover themselves by buying forward or spot should be advised to cease doing so immediately, since they may get the currency cheaper before the payment has to be made. Thus, in this case the fear of devaluation causes those concerned to stop covering their positions. The same applies to inward payments to be made in foreign currencies; residents of the home country would be advised to cease from such covering, since in the interval their currency may be devalued, and therefore it would be foolish to sell the foreign currency due to come, in advance of payment.

      Thus, the prospect of devaluation may cause both additional covering and uncovering. Both types of change are adverse to the currency under suspicion. It is notable that the total value of the appropriate covering plus that of the uncovering when a currency becomes suspect is independent of the proportion of positions that are normally covered. If all positions are normally covered then the adverse effect will consist of an uncovering of about half of all positions. If all positions are not normally covered, then the adverse effect will be equal to the sum of the amount of extra covering and the amount of uncovering. The movement of funds under these heads can be very large in relation to a country's normal balance of incoming and outgoing payments. It makes no difference whether the changed action by the firms relates to the spot or to the forward markets. This is because, when there is a big one-way movement in the forward market, the whole of it is thrown, through the actions of the dealers, arbitrageurs, and the like, onto the spot market.

      Whereas the word “covering” relates to payments foreseen or possible, the term hedging is used for operations related not to prospective payments but to existing assets. Thus, a non-British firm may need to have a sterling balance for an indefinite period ahead. It may think it desirable in this case to protect its position against the possibility of sterling being devalued in the near future by selling sterling forward at the existing quoted rate. If sterling is devalued before the forward contract matures, the operator will get a foreign currency—say the franc—at the old rate and can rebuy sterling at a cheaper rate. The profit that he makes recoups him for the loss in the franc value of his sterling due to the devaluation. If there is no devaluation he can renew his hedge at the date due, if sterling is still suspect, or he can terminate it without loss except for the actual cost, or service charge, of the hedging transaction.

      An even more important use of hedging is to protect the international value of real assets such as securities, real estate, and industrial buildings and plants. If a non-British person conducts business and has assets in Britain, he may think it wise to protect the international value of these assets by selling a certain amount of sterling forward. A devaluation, if it occurs, will reduce the foreign exchange value of the sterling assets; but the profit that the owner makes from selling sterling forward and buying it back at a cheaper rate will be an offset to this loss.

      The movements so far considered are of a precautionary nature. It is sometimes suggested, when there is a big movement of funds out of a currency, that those prompting it are actuated by some motive hostile to the suspect currency. This is usually quite wrong. Such large movements of funds are often referred to incorrectly as “speculative.” This gives a false impression of what is happening. Speculation can, and often does, occur when a currency becomes suspect; but the word speculative should be confined to movements of funds made not to protect positions but purely in the hope of gain. A person may believe that the Deutsche Mark is likely to be valued upward and decide to buy Deutsche Marks, not because he has any commitments denominated in Deutsche Marks but because he wants to resell them afterward at a profit. He will probably buy the Deutsche Marks forward. Such speculation plays only a minor role in the early movements of funds in anticipation of a change of parity. It may, however, mount up very strongly in the last stages when an upward or downward revaluation has become almost certain.

      A big outward movement of funds may precipitate a change of parity, desirable or undesirable in itself, simply because there are not enough reserves to finance the withdrawals. Even if the country in trouble is assisted by international credits, in certain cases these may not be large enough to avert the need for devaluation. A great movement of funds from a particular country may occur because it is thought likely that it will have to devalue. There may also be a great movement into a country thought likely to value upward. The latter kind of movement will cause difficulties for other countries, since the funds must come from somewhere. This adverse effect may be concentrated on one other currency, as in the classic crisis centred on a possible upward valuation of the Deutsche Mark in November 1968, where the drain was mainly from the French franc; or it may be more widely diffused, as in the crisis of the mark in September 1969.

Stresses in the IMF system
      The International Monetary Fund system of pegged-but-adjustable exchange rates came under increasing pressures during the 1960s. The system suffered from three major, interrelated problems: inadequate adjustment, confidence, and liquidity. Changes actually made in exchange rates were inadequate to deal with the major disturbances occurring in international payments. Because the adjustment mechanisms in the system were inadequate, a number of countries ran large and persistent imbalances in their international payments. This led to a lack of confidence that existing par values could be maintained and to periodic speculative rushes into strong currencies and away from weak ones. Deficit countries were not in a position to meet large speculative attacks because of their limited quantities of liquid reserves.

      Traditionally, there had been two major methods of international reserve creation: the mining of gold and the acquisition of reserves in the form of key currencies (mainly dollars). Gold mining did not keep up with the rapid increase in international trade; gold reserves became less and less adequate as a means for covering balance-of-payments deficits. The alternative method for acquiring reserves—the accumulation of U.S. dollars by central banks—had one major disadvantage. For countries such as the United Kingdom, West Germany, or Brazil to accumulate dollars, the United States had to run a balance-of-payments deficit. But when the United States ran large deficits, doubts arose regarding the ability of the United States to maintain the convertibility of the dollar into gold. In other words, there was a fundamental inconsistency in the design of the IMF system, which created something of a paradox: if the United States did run large deficits, the dollar would sooner or later be subject to a crisis of confidence; if it did not run large deficits, the rest of the world would be starved for dollar reserves.

Special Drawing Rights
      To deal with the inability of the existing system to create an adequate quantity of reserves without requiring the United States to run large deficits, a new kind of reserve called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) was devised by the International Monetary Fund. Members of the Fund were to be allocated SDRs, year by year, in prearranged quantities to be used for the discharge of international indebtedness. At the IMF meeting in 1969, agreement was reached for an issue extending over three years. These Special Drawing Rights differed from ordinary Drawing Rights in three important respects: (1) The use of Special Drawing Rights was not to be subject to negotiations or conditions. (2) There was to be only a very much modified form of repayment obligation. A member who used more than 70 percent of all the Special Drawing Rights allotted in a given period had to repay to the extent needed to reduce its average use of the rights during that period to 70 percent of the total. Thus, 70 percent of all Special Drawing Rights issued could be thought of as reserves in the fullest sense, since a member who limited its use to this amount would have no repayment obligation. (3) In the case of Drawing Rights, the Fund uses currencies as subscribed by members to provide the medium of payment. By contrast, the Special Drawing Rights were to be accepted in final discharge of debt without being translated into any particular currency. Though currencies would still have to be subscribed by members receiving Special Drawing Rights, these would be in the background and would not be used, except in the case of a member in net credit on Special Drawing Rights account who wished to withdraw from the scheme.

      Initially, the total amount of Special Drawing Rights allocated was equivalent to more than U.S. $9,000,000,000, but additional allocations to IMF members during the 1970s more than doubled the total. The value of the Special Drawing Rights is based on the currencies of the largest exporting IMF members. The use of SDRs was altered and expanded in 1978, allowing agencies other than the IMF to use SDRs in monetary exchange. Subsequently SDRs have been used by the Andes Reserve Fund, the Arab Monetary Fund, the Bank for International Settlements, and others.

Other efforts at financial cooperation
The Group of Ten
      As early as 1961 there were signs of a crisis in the IMF system. The United States had been running a heavy deficit since 1958, and the United Kingdom plunged into one in 1960. It looked as if these two countries might need to draw upon continental European currencies in excess of the amounts available. Per Jacobssen, then managing director of the IMF, persuaded a group of countries to provide standby credits amounting to $6,000,000,000 in all, so that supplementary supplies of their currencies would be available. The plan was not confined to the countries that happened to be in credit at that time but was extended to other important countries, the currencies of which might run short at some future time. This plan was known as the “General Arrangements to Borrow.” The adhering countries were 10 in number: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, West Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Japan. They became known as the “Group of Ten.”

      The arrangement was subject to the agreement that countries actually supplying additional currency would have the right to take cognizance of how the Fund used it. This put them in a power position as against the International Monetary Fund itself. Since then the Group of Ten has worked together in deliberating on international monetary problems.

      The dominant position gained by the Group of Ten has been due not only to their provision of standby credit but also to the manner in which they do their business. The ultimate authority of the Group resides in the finance ministers of the countries concerned, who meet from time to time. Their deputies meet more frequently for detailed work on particular problems. These deputies consist of high-ranking persons in their respective treasuries and central banks; they are resident in their own countries and have day-to-day knowledge of their problems and of what is politically feasible. In this respect they are in a much more advantageous position than the executive directors of the International Monetary Fund, who live in Washington, D.C., and have less contact with their home governments; they also tend to be persons of higher standing and authority.

The Basel Group
      In 1930 a Bank for International Settlements (International Settlements, Bank for) was established at Basel, Switz.; its main duty was to supervise and organize the transfer of German reparations to the recipient countries. This “transfer problem” had caused much trouble during the 1920s. There may also have been a hope in the minds of some that this institution might one day develop into something like a world central bank.

      Not long after it was set up the Germans gained a moratorium on their reparations payments. By then, however, the Bank for International Settlements had become a convenient place for the heads of the European central banks to meet together and discuss current problems. This practice was resumed after the war, and the United States, although not a member, was invited to join in the deliberations.

      When Marshall Plan aid was furnished by the United States to help European countries in their postwar reconstruction, a European Payments Union was established to facilitate multilateral trade and settlements in advance of the time when it might be possible to reestablish full multilateralism on a world scale. The war had left a jumble of trade restrictions that could not be quickly abolished. The European Payments Union also contained a plan for the provision of credit to European debtors. The United Kingdom was a member, and with it was associated the whole sterling area. Responsibility for working the machinery of the European Payments Union was assigned to the Bank for International Settlements. The European Payments Union was ultimately wound up after the countries of Europe were able to eliminate the last restrictions and make their currencies fully convertible in 1958.

      In January and February 1961 there was a serious sterling (pound sterling) crisis, due partly to the British deficit of 1960 and partly to a large movement of funds in anticipation of an upward valuation of the West German mark, which happened, and thereafter in anticipation of a second upward valuation, which did not happen at that time. To help the British, the Basel Group of central banks provided substantial credits. These were liquidated when the United Kingdom transferred its indebtedness to the International Monetary Fund the following July. The Basel Group has provided further credits from time to time. The problems involved have continued to be discussed at the monthly meetings.

      The arrangement made for the support of the sterling area in 1968 is noteworthy. After the devaluation of sterling in 1967 it was feared that the monetary authorities of the countries composing the sterling area might wish to reduce their holdings of sterling. Because there was a continuing problem of world liquidity and sterling played an important part as a reserve currency, the international consensus was that any substantial reduction in the holding of sterling as a reserve currency would be damaging to the international monetary system. Under the arrangement made in 1968 the United Kingdom on its side agreed to give a dollar guarantee to the value of the greater part of the sterling-area reserves; there were slightly different arrangements with each monetary authority. On its side the Bank for International Settlement agreed to organize credits to finance payments deficits for some countries of the sterling area, should these occur at times when the United Kingdom might find it difficult to handle them.

The OECD
      The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (European Economic Co-operation, Organisation for) (OEEC) was set up in 1948 to make arrangements for the distribution of Marshall Aid among the countries of Europe. When its tasks in this connection were accomplished, it remained in existence, was broadened to include the United States, Canada, and Japan, and it was renamed the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (Economic Co-operation and Development, Organisation for) (OECD). It has a permanent staff and headquarters in Paris. It undertakes research on a substantial scale and affords a forum for the discussion of international economic problems. The Working Party No. 3 of the organization's Economic Committee, which is concerned with problems of money and exchange, has made significant contributions; it issued a very important report on balance-of-payments adjustment problems in 1966. At times the personnel of the Working Party has been much the same as that of the deputies of the Group of Ten. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has also set up an organization called the Development Assistance Committee, concerned with problems of assistance to the developing countries.

Swap agreements
      The informal system of swap agreements provides a mutual arrangement between central banks for standby credits designed to see countries through difficulties on the occasions of large movements of funds. These are intended only to offset private international flows of capital on precautionary or speculative account, not to finance even temporary deficits in countries' balance of payments. Arranged ad hoc and informally, they depend on the mutual goodwill and trust of the central banks involved. The system of credits, although informal, must be reckoned as important, because they are of large amount.

Sir Roy Forbes Harrod Paul Wonnacott

The end of pegged exchange rates
The crisis of the dollar
      The monetary system established by the IMF in 1944 underwent profound changes in the 1970s. This system had assumed that the dollar was the strongest currency in the world because the United States was the strongest economic power. Other countries were expected to have difficulty from time to time in stabilizing their exchange rates and would need assistance in the form of credits from the IMF, but the dollar was expected to remain stable enough to function as a substitute for gold in international transactions. In the second half of the 1960s these assumptions came into question. The war in Vietnam led to inflation. The flood of dollars into other countries caused difficulty for the European central banks, which were forced to increase their dollar holdings in order to maintain their currencies at the established exchange rates. As the flood continued in 1971, the West German and Dutch governments decided to let their currencies float—that is, to let their exchange rates fluctuate beyond their assigned parities. Austria and Switzerland revalued their currencies upward in relation to the dollar. These measures helped for a time, but in August the outflow of dollars resumed. On August 15 Pres. Richard M. Nixon (Nixon, Richard M.) suspended the U.S. commitment made in 1934 to convert dollars into gold, effectively ending the postwar monetary system established by the IMF. Most of the major trading countries decided to abandon fixed exchange rates temporarily and let their currencies find their own values in relation to the dollar.

The Smithsonian Agreement and after
      On Dec. 17 and 18, 1971, representatives of the Group of Ten met at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and agreed on a realignment of currencies and a new set of pegged exchange rates. The dollar was devalued in terms of gold, while other currencies were appreciated in terms of the dollar. On the whole, the dollar was devalued by nearly 10 percent in relation to the other Group of Ten currencies (those of the United Kingdom, Canada, France, West Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Japan). Several months after the Smithsonian Agreement, the six members of the European Economic Community (European Community) (EEC) agreed to maintain their exchange rates within a range of 2.25 percent of parity with each other.

      The Smithsonian Agreement proved to be only a temporary solution to the international currency crisis. A second devaluation of the dollar (by 10 percent) was announced in February 1973, and not long afterward Japan and the EEC countries decided to let their currencies float. At the time, these were thought of as temporary measures to cope with speculation and capital shifts; it was, however, the end of the system of established par values.

Sir Roy Forbes Harrod Francis S. Pierce Ed.

Floating exchange rates
      The floating exchange-rate system emerged when the old IMF system of pegged exchange rates collapsed. The case for the pegged exchange rate is based partly on the deficiencies of alternative systems. The IMF system of adjustable pegs proved unworkable in a world in which there were huge volumes of internationally mobile financial capital that could be shifted out of countries in balance-of-payments difficulties and into the stronger nations. The earlier gold standard system had likewise contained substantial defects. Under some circumstances, it required countries to go through a painful deflation. The gold standard, it is widely held, made the Great Depression of the 1930s even deeper than it might otherwise have been.

      Three major, interrelated hopes were expressed when flexible exchange rates replaced the collapsing IMF system of pegged exchange rates in the early 1970s. First, flexible exchange rates would allow currencies to hold at or near their fundamental equilibrium values; national authorities would not feel obliged to defend exchange rates that were severely out of line. Second, deficit countries would be able to reestablish their international competitiveness without going through the painful deflationary process required by the old gold standard and without facing the political embarrassment of abandoning an established par value. Finally, the national monetary authorities would have a substantial degree of independence to pursue the most appropriate domestic monetary and fiscal policies, without being severely constrained by balance-of-payments pressures. In practice, exchange-rate flexibility turned out to be more complicated than its proponents had anticipated.

Exchange-rate fluctuations
      The pegged exchange-rate system collapsed in two speculative flurries against the U.S. dollar in 1971 and 1973. In each case, the dollar depreciated about 10 percent in terms of an average of other currencies. (In calculating an average exchange rate for the dollar, the currencies of each other nation is weighted according to the volume of trade of that nation with the United States.) After these initial adjustments, exchange rates of the major trading nations were generally quite stable for the next four years (late 1973–77), although there were some fluctuations. The dollar strengthened following the first oil shock, which occurred in 1973–74; because the United States still produced most of the oil it consumed, it was expected to be less severely shaken by high oil prices than would its major trading partners, especially West Germany and Japan. In the 1973–77 period, the major exchange-rate change was a fall in the British pound sterling by about 30 percent when measured in terms of dollars.

      In late 1977 the dollar entered a period of instability. As the U.S. economy expanded and inflation increased, U.S. goods became less competitive on world markets. In response, the dollar began to slide downward. This raised the price of imported goods in the United States, adding to inflationary pressures. The United States seemed in danger of entering a wage–price–exchange rate spiral. Anticipating worse to come, speculators began to unload dollars, moving the exchange value of the dollar even lower. During the 1977–79 period, the average exchange value of the dollar declined by about 15 percent.

      Faced with a rapidly deteriorating situation, the United States tightened its domestic policies sharply. In particular, monetary policy was tightened in order to combat the rapid inflation. This experience provided one early, important lesson about flexible exchange rates. Even though flexible exchange rates provide some independence for domestic monetary policies, domestic policies cannot be made without concern for international complications. This is true even for a large, prosperous economy, such as that of the United States.

      During the late 1970s, the U.S. dollar was threatened with a collapse. By the mid-1980s the opposite had occurred: the dollar had soared—rising about 80 percent. A number of forces contributed to this rise. One was U.S. fiscal policy: tax rates were cut sharply, and budgetary deficits ballooned. Large-scale government borrowing added to the demands on financial markets, leading to high interest rates. This encouraged foreign asset holders to buy U.S. bonds. To do so, they bought dollars, creating upward pressure on the exchange value of the dollar. In turn, the high dollar made it difficult for U.S. producers to compete on world markets. U.S. imports rose briskly; exports were relatively sluggish, and the U.S. trade deficit soared.

      Because of strong competition from imports, U.S. producers of automobiles, textiles, and a number of other products lobbied for protection. Under the threat of unilateral U.S. actions, the government of Japan was persuaded to impose “voluntary” limits on exports of cars to the United States. There were concerns—both in the United States and in its trading partners—that the United States might adopt a much more protectionist policy because the high exchange value of the dollar was making it so difficult for U.S. producers to compete.

      Faced with this unwelcome prospect, senior officials of the “Group of Five” (France, West Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) met at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in 1985. In the “Plaza Agreement,” they declared their intention to bring the dollar down to a more competitive level, if necessary by official sales of dollars on exchange markets.

      This episode raised fundamental questions about flexible exchange rates, leading some financial experts to suggest an intermediate system between freely flexible exchange rates and the old IMF system of adjustable pegs. With sizable exchange-market interventions by governments and central banks, exchange rates were not freely flexible. They were being managed by the authorities. (Such a managed floating rate is sometimes called a “dirty” float.)

      Some experts supported more active exchange-rate management in order to prevent currencies from becoming severely misaligned. Governments were advised to declare “target zones” for exchange rates and to buy or sell currencies whenever needed to keep exchange rates within these zones—moving the target zones as fundamental economic conditions changed. The concept was to avoid large exchange-rate swings.

The European Monetary System
      In the early 1970s, when the IMF system of adjustable pegs broke down, the currencies of the western European countries began to float, as did most other currencies.

      However, the members of the European Economic Community (European Community) wanted an exchange-rate agreement to complement their customs union. An early step was taken in this direction when the nations instituted the so-called “snake in a tunnel.” Exchange-rate fluctuations between EEC members were limited, and the currencies moved in a narrow, undulating, snakelike pattern against the U.S. dollar and other outside currencies.

      In 1979 most of the members of the EEC (with the important exception of the United Kingdom) entered a more formal agreement, the European Monetary System (EMS), which had some characteristics of the old IMF system. Exchange rates were to be pegged to a European Currency Unit ( ecu), made up of a basket of European currencies. However, there were three important differences from the old IMF system: (1) the flexibility around the official rate was as much as 6 percent, substantially wider than the 1 percent under the IMF system; (2) official rates were to be adjusted more quickly and frequently than the IMF par rates; and (3) the U.S. dollar was not included in the EMS system; thus, the EMS currencies fluctuated as a group against the U.S. dollar.

The international debt crisis
      Developing nations have traditionally borrowed from the developed nations to support their economies. In the 1970s such borrowing became quite heavy among certain developing countries, and their external debt expanded at a very rapid, unsustainable rate. The result was an international financial crisis. Countries such as Mexico and Brazil declared that they could not keep up with the schedule of interest and principal payments, causing severe reactions in the financial world. Cooperating with creditor nations and the IMF, these countries were able to reschedule their debts—that is, delay payments to remove financial pressure. But the underlying problem remained—developing countries were saddled with staggering debts that totaled more than $800,000,000,000 by the mid-1980s. For the less-developed countries as a whole (excluding the major oil exporters), debt service payments were claiming more than 20 percent of their total export earnings.

      The large debts created huge problems for the developing countries and for the banks that faced the risk of substantial losses on their loan portfolios. Such debts increased the difficulty of finding funds to finance development. In addition, the need to acquire foreign currencies to service the debt contributed to a rapid depreciation of the currencies and to rapid inflation in Mexico, Brazil, and a number of other developing nations.

      The wide fluctuations in the price of oil (petroleum) were one of the factors contributing to the debt problem. When the price of oil rose rapidly in the 1970s, most countries felt unable to reduce their oil consumption quickly. In order to pay for expensive oil imports, many went deeply into debt. They borrowed to finance current consumption—something that could not go on indefinitely. As a major oil importer, Brazil was one of the nations adversely affected by rising oil prices.

      Paradoxically, however, the oil-importing countries were not the only ones to borrow more when the price of oil rose rapidly. Some of the oil exporters—such as Mexico—also contracted large new debts. They thought that the price of oil would move continually upward, at least for the foreseeable future. They therefore felt safe in borrowing large amounts, expecting that rapidly increasing oil revenues would provide the funds to service their debts. The price of oil drifted downward, however, making payments much more difficult.

      The debt reschedulings, and the accompanying policies of demand restraint, were built on the premise that a few years of tough adjustment would be sufficient to get out of such crises and to provide the basis for renewed, vigorous growth. To the contrary, however, some authorities believed that huge foreign debts would act as a continuing drag on growth and could have catastrophic results.

Additional Reading
Benjamin J. Cohen, Organizing the World's Money: The Political Economy of International Monetary Relations (1977); Richard N. Cooper et al. (eds.), The International Monetary System Under Flexible Exchange Rates: Global, Regional, and National (1982); Richard N. Cooper, Macroeconomic Policy Adjustment in Interdependent Economies (1969); Paul Einzig and Brian Scott Quinn, The Euro-Dollar System: Practice and Theory of International Interest Rates, 6th ed. (1977); J. Marcus Fleming, Guidelines for Balance-of-Payments Adjustment Under the Par-Value System (1968); Anne O. Krueger, Exchange-Rate Determination (1983); Gerald M. Meier, Problems of Trade Policy (1973), Problems of a World Monetary Order, 2nd ed. (1982), and Problems of Cooperation for Development (1974); Robert A. Mundell, International Economics (1968); Robert Solomon, The International Monetary System, 1945–1981, new ed. (1982); and Robert Triffin, Gold and the Dollar Crisis: The Future of Convertibility (1960, reprinted 1983), in which the author points out the contradictions in the IMF system. A suggestion for target zones for exchange rates is presented in John Williamson, The Exchange Rate System, 2nd ed. (1985). International debt is specifically discussed in Bela Balassa et al., Toward Renewed Economic Growth in Latin America (1986); William R. Cline, International Debt: Systemic Risk and Policy Response, new ed. (1984); Thomas O. Enders and Richard P. Mattione, Latin America: The Crisis of Debt and Growth (1984); and Carol Lancaster and John Williamson (eds.), African Debt and Financing (1986).Paul Wonnacott

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