Search

The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) marked its Silver Jubilee in 2010. The SAARC's charter, which was signed by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in 1985, has many similarities to the founding charters of similar regional associations signed elsewhere. While other regional associations have made substantial progress, SAARC has yet to produce notable results. In the context of growing global economic interdependence, it is of interest to assess how far economic growth in each of the SAARC economies has influenced growth in other member countries. Adopting a vector autoregression (VAR) methodology, this paper investigates macroeconomic interdependence in the South Asian region with a view to evaluating its readiness to forge ahead with its integration efforts. The findings of the study reveal that India has been influencing economic growth in the region, as its output variability has been affecting outputs in other member countries. If SAARC has to become successful as a regional bloc, India as the biggest gainer from trade and investment relationships should take some bold steps, which would represent some readiness to part with some of the gains derived by way of trade surpluses.JEL Classifications: F15, O53 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remittances have been a great support to Pacific island countries (PICs). Aside from providing additions to domestic savings and, hence, real resources, they have been one of the major sources of foreign exchange earnings. In the context of falling exports and limited options to diversify their exports, inward remittances have assumed greater importance. This paper examines the nexus between growth and remittances in Samoa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pacific island countries (PICs), ever since their independence during the second half of the last century, have been among the world's top ten recipients of official development assistance (ODA) on a per capita basis. Until the mid 1990s, most of them were receiving aid from their erstwhile colonial masters for budgetary support. With the introduction of reforms in ODA delivery in the late 1990s with focus on program and project-tied aid, it was expected that aid would directly facilitate creation of much-needed growth enhancing infrastructures, physical as well as social, since domestic savings were found to be insufficient to finance them. However, continued stagnation in some PICs and deterioration in some others have been causing concerns. This paper seeks to examine the effectiveness of aid by undertaking a case study of Fiji, which has a longer time series data needed for econometric investigation. Based on the study's findings, the paper lists some policy conclusions relevant to the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a global economy, the South Pacific islands face unique constraints to growth. The study investigates whether Fiji was benefited by three-decade old open trade policies. Through a multivariate cointegration analysis, the study establishes the existence of a long-run relationship between open trade policy and physical and human capital resources. Although physical capital had a positive impact on growth, the existing complementary relationship between two kinds of capital requires that a threshold between physical and human capital needs to be attained before any negative influence on growth can be transformed into positive impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing public debt of Fiji has been causing concerns all around. As part of countercyclical measures, the Government stepped up public expenditure from 2001 in response to the adverse consequences of the 2000 civilian coup, which witnessed a decline in investor confidence, resulting in a steep fall in private sector investment. Expansionary fiscal policy measures in the annual budgets of 2001 to 2004 as well as unforeseen natural disaster management expenditures have pushed the ratio of outstanding public debt to national output beyond the level of 50%. This paper seeks to examine the nexus between debt and growth in Fiji. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pacific island countries (PICs) have been among the world's top ten recipients of official development assistance (ODA) on a per capita basis. This paper seeks to examine the effectiveness of external aid by undertaking a panel data study covering five countries in the South Pacific, namely Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu utilizing the annual data over a twenty-five year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]