Author: Otaviano Canuto
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Otaviano Canuto: Are We on the Verge of a New Commodity Super-Cycle?
Commodity prices have recovered their 2020 losses and, in most cases, are now above pre-pandemic levels (Figure 1). The pace of Chinese growth since 2020 and the economic recovery that has accompanied vaccine rollouts are driving demand upward, while supply
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Otaviano Canuto: Middle-Income Countries Should Not Be Rushed to ‘Graduate’ Status
Many donor countries seem eager to see middle-income countries (MICs) graduate to non-client status in multilateral development institutions before achieving their full development potential. Such institutions can significantly contribute to the sustainable development of MICs, while seizing many benefits from
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The Size of Biden’s Fiscal Package
The monetary policy report submitted by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to the U.S. Congress on Friday Feb. 19 showed that the Fed’s members have improved economic growth expectations for 2021 and 2022, expect lower unemployment
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Otaviano Canuto: Central Banks and Inequality
While the economic recovery around the world remains uneven, fragile, and unbalanced across sectors, financial markets are generally doing very well, thanks! In the United States, only half of the unemployment caused by the pandemic last year has been reversed,
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The Two Sides of Capital Flows into Brazil
There was a significant inflow of funds in Brazil’s external financial account in October and November for investments in both stocks and fixed income instruments. The bulk of the recent inflow has come in a passive way, and it did
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Don’t Expect Miracles from the Multilaterals
by Otaviano Canuto Latin American and Caribbean economies need help, but organisations such as the IDB are also stretched thin. With Latin America and the Caribbean potentially facing years of difficulties due to the pandemic and related economic crises, attention
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Whither Interest Rates in Advanced Economies: Low for Long?
by Otaviano Canuto We have previously discussed how, between March 2020, when the financial shock caused by COVID-19 occurred, and the end of August, the stock and corporate debt markets in the United States performed extraordinarily, despite gloomy prospects on
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China on the Way Back to Rebalancing
China’s economy keeps recovering from the coronavirus pandemic-led crisis through the third quarter of 2020, as revealed by the numbers of August activity. Its GDP grew by 3.2% in the second quarter, after falling by 6.8% in the first quarter,
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Otaviano Canuto: Dependency and Disconnect of U.S. Financial Markets
U.S. stock and corporate bond markets performed extraordinarily well from the March financial shock caused by covid-19 to the end of last month. Then, three consecutive weeks of decline in the three major stock market indexes have been followed this
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Otaviano Canuto: Brazil, South Korea – Two Tales of Climbing an Income Ladder
The “middle-income trap” has captured many developing countries: they succeeded in evolving from low per capita income levels, but then appeared to stall, losing momentum along the route toward the higher income levels of advanced economies (Gill & Kharas, 2007,
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