Download or read book Choosing Exchange Regimes in the Middle East and North Africa written by Abdelali Jbili and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2003-09-05 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pamphlet reviews the exchange regimes of five emerging market countries in the region--Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia and an oil-exporting country, Iran, to see whether they need to consider adopting more flexible arrangements as they further open their economies to trade and capital flows. In fact, two countries, Egypt and Iran, have recently adopted flexible exchange rate arrangements, but their experience is too recent to warrant meaningful conclusions. The pamphlet highlights the criteria for an exchange regime choice, presents a country-by-country assessment of existing exchange regimes, explores options for the future based on the forward-looking analysis of reform prospects in each country, raises the issue of a nominal anchor for countries with floating exchange rates, and considers the pros and cons of monetary aggregate and inflation targeting as policy anchors. The pamphlet looks at the recent move by Egypt and Iran toward more flexible exchange rate regimes, and discusses the required steps to ensure the success of these experiences. For the other countries, the choice is less clear-cut and more of a long-term nature. In either case, transition to a more flexible exchange rate arrangement raises the question of what conditions countries would need to meet if they opted for greater flexibility, including changes to their monetary policy framework.