[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eab/financ/23398.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Useful Is an Asian Currency Unit (ACU) Index for Surveillance in East Asia?

Author

Listed:
  • Victor Pontines

    (Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI))

Abstract
An Asian Currency Unit (ACU) index is constructed using an alternative procedure which minimizes a basket or portfolio of assets expressed in terms of national currencies. Using this estimated ACU index and an ACU Deviation Indicator, the main finding of this study based on the current trajectory of East Asian currencies relative to this regional ACU average or benchmark is that there is a formation of two contrasting groups of countries in the region—one a group of strong currencies and the other a group of weak currencies. We emphasize that the implication of this contrasting trajectory in East Asian intra-regional exchange rates is to disturb the competitive trading relationships in the region which may result in wasteful beggar-thyneighbor policies in the region. As emphasized by other recent studies, e.g., Kawai and Takagi (2012), the region needs a kind of framework for exchange rate policy coordination that will promote intra-regional exchange rate stability. We suggest several ways in which the region can capitalize on using this ACU index in the immediate term for surveillance purposes, particularly, for purposes of assessing “over- and undervaluation†of the individual currencies from the regional ACU average and for flagging emerging vulnerabilities in individual economies in the region.

Suggested Citation

  • Victor Pontines, 2013. "How Useful Is an Asian Currency Unit (ACU) Index for Surveillance in East Asia?," Finance Working Papers 23398, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:eab:financ:23398
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.eaber.org/node/23398
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eiji Ogawa & Junko Shimizu, 2005. "A Deviation Measurement for Coordinated Exchange Rate Policies in East Asia," Discussion papers 05017, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    2. Pontines, Victor & Siregar, Reza Y., 2012. "Fear of appreciation in East and Southeast Asia: The role of the Chinese renminbi," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 324-334.
    3. Stephen G. Cecchetti, 2008. "Measuring the Macroeconomic Risks Posed by Asset Price Booms," NBER Chapters, in: Asset Prices and Monetary Policy, pages 9-43, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Dick van Dijk & Timo Terasvirta & Philip Hans Franses, 2002. "Smooth Transition Autoregressive Models — A Survey Of Recent Developments," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 1-47.
    5. Guillermo A. Calvo & Carmen M. Reinhart, 2002. "Fear of Floating," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(2), pages 379-408.
    6. Barry Eichengreen & Raul Razo‐Garcia, 2013. "How Reliable Are De Facto Exchange Rate Regime Classifications?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(3), pages 216-239, July.
    7. Terasvirta, T & Anderson, H M, 1992. "Characterizing Nonlinearities in Business Cycles Using Smooth Transition Autoregressive Models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(S), pages 119-136, Suppl. De.
    8. Gupta, Abhijit Sen, 2012. "Exchange Rate Coordination in Asia: Evidence using the Asian Currency Unit," ADBI Working Papers 356, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    9. Pontines, Victor & Siregar, Reza, 2008. "Fundamental pitfalls of exchange market pressure-based approaches to identification of currency crises," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 345-365.
    10. Andrew K. Rose, 2011. "Exchange Rate Regimes in the Modern Era : Fixed, Floating, and Flaky," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(3), pages 652-672, September.
    11. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2004. "The Modern History of Exchange Rate Arrangements: A Reinterpretation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 1-48.
    12. Frankel, Jeffrey & Saravelos, George, 2012. "Can leading indicators assess country vulnerability? Evidence from the 2008–09 global financial crisis," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 216-231.
    13. Eduardo Levy-Yeyati & Federico Sturzenegger, 2003. "To Float or to Fix: Evidence on the Impact of Exchange Rate Regimes on Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1173-1193, September.
    14. Victor Pontines & Reza Y. Siregar, 2012. "Exchange Rate Asymmetry and Flexible Exchange Rates under Inflation Targeting Regimes: Evidence from Four East and Southeast Asian Countries," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 893-908, November.
    15. OGAWA Eiji & Zhiqian WANG, 2012. "The AMU Deviation Indicators Based on the Purchasing Power Parity and Adjusted by the Balassa-Samuelson Effect," Discussion papers 12078, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    16. John Williamson, 2005. "A Currency Basket for East Asia, Not Just China," Policy Briefs PB05-01, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    17. Hans Genberg, 2006. "Exchange-rate arrangements and financial integration in East Asia: on a collision course?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 359-377, December.
    18. Ethan Ilzetzki & Carmen M Reinhart & Kenneth S Rogoff, 2019. "Exchange Arrangements Entering the Twenty-First Century: Which Anchor will Hold?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(2), pages 599-646.
    19. Graham Bird & Ramkishen Rajan, 2003. "Too Much of a Good Thing? The Adequacy of International Reserves in the Aftermath of Crises," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(6), pages 873-891, June.
    20. Hovanov, Nikolai V. & Kolari, James W. & Sokolov, Mikhail V., 2004. "Computing currency invariant indices with an application to minimum variance currency baskets," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1481-1504, June.
    21. Ogawa, Eiji & Ito, Takatoshi, 2002. "On the Desirability of a Regional Basket Currency Arrangement," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 317-334, September.
    22. Levy-Yeyati, Eduardo & Sturzenegger, Federico, 2005. "Classifying exchange rate regimes: Deeds vs. words," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(6), pages 1603-1635, August.
    23. Eiji Ogawa & Zhiqian Wang, 2012. "The AMU Deviation Indicators Based on the Purchasing Power Parity and Adjusted by the Balassa-Samuelson Effect," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd12-255, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    24. Maria Socorro Gochoco-Bautista, 2008. "Asset prices and monetary policy: booms and fat tails in East Asia," BIS Working Papers 243, Bank for International Settlements.
    25. Eric Girardin, 2011. "A De Facto Asian-Currency Unit Bloc in East Asia : It Has Been There but We Did Not Look for It," Finance Working Papers 23275, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    26. Nicola Cetorelli & Linda S Goldberg, 2011. "Global Banks and International Shock Transmission: Evidence from the Crisis," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 59(1), pages 41-76, April.
    27. Koichi Hamada & Beate Reszat & Ulrich Volz (ed.), 2009. "Towards Monetary and Financial Integration in East Asia," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13458.
    28. Hung-Gay Fung & Jr-Ya Wu & Jot Yau, 2013. "Recent Policy Changes Toward the Internationalization of the Renminbi," Chinese Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(4), pages 6-24, July.
    29. Pontines, Victor & Siregar, Reza, 2007. "The Yen, the US dollar, and the trade weighted basket of currencies: Does the choice of anchor currencies matter in identifying incidences of speculative attacks?," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 214-235, March.
    30. Már Gudmundsson, 2008. "Near‐Term Exchange Rate Flexibility In East Asia: Precursor To Regional Monetary Union?," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 62-82, February.
    31. Masahiro Kawai, 2009. "The Role of an Asian Currency Unit," Chapters, in: Koichi Hamada & Beate Reszat & Ulrich Volz (ed.), Towards Monetary and Financial Integration in East Asia, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    32. Takagi, Shinji, 1988. "A basket peg policy: Operational issues for developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 271-279, February.
    33. Victor Pontines & Ramkishen Rajan, 2008. "The Asian Currency Unit (ACU): exploring alternative currency weights," Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 269-278.
    34. THORBECKE, Willem, 2012. "East Asian Supply Chains and Relative Prices: A survey of the evidence," Policy Discussion Papers 12006, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    35. Mundell, Robert, 2003. "Prospects for an Asian currency area," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, February.
    36. Rana, Pradumna Bickram & Chia, Wai-Mun & Jinjarak, Yothin, 2012. "Monetary integration in ASEAN+3: A perception survey of opinion leaders," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 1-12.
    37. Kawai, Masahiro & Takagi, Shinji, 2000. "Proposed strategy for a regional exchange rate arrangement in post-crisis East Asia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2503, The World Bank.
    38. OGAWA Eiji & YOSHIMI Taiyo, 2008. "Widening Deviation among East Asian Currencies," Discussion papers 08010, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    39. Victor Pontines, 2009. "Optimal common currency basket in East Asia," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(11), pages 1139-1141.
    40. Charles Engel & Kristin Forbes & Jeffrey Frankel, 2012. "Global Financial Crisis," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number enge11-2.
    41. Pontines, Victor & Rajan, Ramkishen S., 2011. "Foreign exchange market intervention and reserve accumulation in emerging Asia: Is there evidence of fear of appreciation?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 111(3), pages 252-255, June.
    42. Pozo, Susan & Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina, 2003. "Statistical distributions and the identification of currency crises," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 591-609, August.
    43. Hwee Kwan Chow & Peter Nicholas Kriz & Roberto S. Mariano & Augustine H. H. Tan, 2010. "Monetary Policy Cooperation To Support Asian Economic Integration," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 55(01), pages 83-101.
    44. Masahiro Kawai, 2008. "Toward A Regional Exchange Rate Regime In East Asia," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 83-103, February.
    45. Masahiro Kawai & Peter J. Morgan & Shinji Takagi (ed.), 2012. "Monetary and Currency Policy Management in Asia," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14414.
    46. Thorbecke, Willem, 2010. "An empirical analysis of ASEAN's labor-intensive exports," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 505-513, December.
    47. Olivier Jeanne, 2007. "International Reserves in Emerging Market Countries: Too Much of a Good Thing?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 38(1), pages 1-80.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shahriar Kabir & Ruhul Salim, 2016. "Can A Common Currency Induce Intra-Regional Trade? The Southeast Asian Perspective," Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 218-234, November.
    2. Victor Pontines & Richard Pomfret, 2014. "Exchange rate policy and regional trade agreements: a case of conflicted interests?," Chapters, in: Richard Baldwin & Masahiro Kawai & Ganeshan Wignaraja (ed.), A World Trade Organization for the 21st Century, chapter 7, pages 157-181, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Selvarajan, Sonia Kumari & Ab-Rahim, Rossazana, 2020. "Financial Integration and Economic Growth: Should Asia Emulate Europe?," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 35(1), pages 191-213.
    4. Masahiro Kawai & Victor Pontines, 2014. "The Renminbi and Exchange Rate Regimes in East Asia," Macroeconomics Working Papers 24218, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    5. Yana Valeryevna Dyomina, 2014. "Balance of Payments of East Asian Countries: Impact of the Coordinated Monetary Policy," Spatial Economics=Prostranstvennaya Ekonomika, Economic Research Institute, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (Khabarovsk, Russia), issue 1, pages 138-152.
    6. Pontines, Victor & You, Kefei, 2015. "Asian Currency Unit (ACU), deviation indicators and exchange rate coordination in East Asia: A panel-based convergence approach," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 42-55.
    7. Kawai, Masahiro & Pontines, Victor, 2016. "Is there really a renminbi bloc in Asia?: A modified Frankel–Wei approach," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 72-97.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pontines, Victor & You, Kefei, 2015. "Asian Currency Unit (ACU), deviation indicators and exchange rate coordination in East Asia: A panel-based convergence approach," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 42-55.
    2. Jeffrey Frankel, 2021. "Systematic Managed Floating," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Steven J Davis & Edward S Robinson & Bernard Yeung (ed.), THE ASIAN MONETARY POLICY FORUM Insights for Central Banking, chapter 5, pages 160-221, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2016_020 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Gil-Alana, Luis A. & You, Kefei, 2018. "Exchange rate linkages between the ASEAN currencies, the US dollar and the Chinese RMB," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 227-238.
    5. Mr. Manuk Ghazanchyan & Ms. Janet Gale Stotsky, 2013. "Drivers of Growth: Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries," IMF Working Papers 2013/236, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Cécile Couharde & Carl Grekou, 2016. "Currency Misalignments in emerging and developing countries: reassessing the role of Exchange Rate Regimes," Post-Print hal-01549902, HAL.
    7. Ramkishen S. Rajan, 2011. "Management of Exchange Rate Regimes in Emerging Asia," Macroeconomics Working Papers 23214, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    8. Nadav Ben Zeev, 2017. "Exchange Rate Regimes And Sudden Stops," Working Papers 1712, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    9. Marek A. Dąbrowski & Monika Papież & Sławomir Śmiech, 2020. "Classifying de facto exchange rate regimes of financially open and closed economies: A statistical approach," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(7), pages 821-849, October.
    10. Ben Zeev, Nadav, 2019. "Global credit supply shocks and exchange rate regimes," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 1-32.
    11. D’Adamo, Gaetano & Rovelli, Riccardo, 2015. "The role of the exchange rate regime in the process of real and nominal convergence," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 21-37.
    12. Bohl, Martin T. & Michaelis, Philip & Siklos, Pierre L., 2016. "Austerity and recovery: Exchange rate regime choice, economic growth, and financial crises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 195-207.
    13. Lahura, Erick & Vega, Marco, 2013. "Regímenes cambiarios y desempeño macroeconómico: Una evaluación de la literatura," Revista Estudios Económicos, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, issue 26, pages 101-119.
    14. Catherine Figuière & Laëtitia Guilhot & Cyriac Guillaumin, 2013. "La question du régime de change en Asie de l'Est : Vers un bloc monétaire régional ?," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 123(2), pages 265-298.
    15. Dongwon Lee, 2023. "International cooperation in foreign reserve policies in the presence of competitive hoarding," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 389-412, May.
    16. Gupta, Abhijit Sen, 2012. "Exchange Rate Coordination in Asia: Evidence using the Asian Currency Unit," ADBI Working Papers 356, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    17. Petreski, Marjan, 2014. "Grooming Classifications: Exchange Rate Regimes and Growth in Transition Economies," MPRA Paper 54473, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Victor Pontines & Richard Pomfret, 2014. "Exchange rate policy and regional trade agreements: a case of conflicted interests?," Chapters, in: Richard Baldwin & Masahiro Kawai & Ganeshan Wignaraja (ed.), A World Trade Organization for the 21st Century, chapter 7, pages 157-181, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Terrones, Marco E., 2020. "Do fixers perform worse than non-fixers during global recessions and recoveries?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    20. Michael Bleaney & Mo Tian, 2020. "Exchange Rate Flexibility: How Should We Measure It?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 881-900, September.
    21. Andrew J. Filardo & Pierre L. Siklos, 2016. "Prolonged Reserves Accumulation, Credit Booms, Asset Prices and Monetary Policy in Asia," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(2), pages 364-381, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Asian Currency Unit (ACU) index; intra-regional exchange rate; finnacial surveillance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eab:financ:23398. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shiro Armstrong (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eaberau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.