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This paper analyzes and tests the influence of political instability on economic vulnerability in the context of the 1994 and 1997 crisis episodes. It constructs four political variables that aim at quantifying political instability. The paper finds that, for countries with weak economic fundamentals and low reserves, political instability has a strong impact on economic vulnerability. The estimation results suggest that including political variables in economic models does improve their power to explain and predict economic crises. The paper concludes that countries are more economically vulnerable during, and especially following, election periods, and when election results are less stable than at other times. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper reports in detail on a survey that was circulated to reserve managing central banks of IMF member countries in April 2012. The survey aims to gain further insight into how reserve managers have reacted to the crisis to date. The survey also aims to understand how reserve managers arrive at their strategic asset allocation and how they operate their risk management frameworks in practice. Some of the key themes that emerge from the survey include potential procyclical and counter cyclical behavior by reserve managers, increased focus placed on returns and wide variability across countries in how the currency composition of reserves is derived.

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