The OMFIF Monthly Bulletin moves into a new phase this month with a layout revamp that seeks to encapsulate the organisation’s growing international reach. For the 41st issue since our establishment in January 2010, we are launching the first publication with a full-scale cover photograph, part of efforts to upgrade the publication’s visual appeal. And we are devoting more space to the challenges facing emerging markets. These countries are being brought down to
earth by domestic imbalances and nervousness about Federal Reserve policy. The tasks facing Asia form the centrepiece of this month’s issue. Asia has forged ahead in the growth stakes and set down a marker for economic and political stability. Yet institutional infrastructure lags behind. Europe is enduring a long period of uncertainty engendered by the most advanced and ambitious form of integration – forming a single currency. Asian integration, as a series of articles in the September issue underline, has been more honoured in acronyms than in applications. For the world as a whole, Meghnad Desai looks glumly ahead at what he imagines may be the downturn phase of a Kondratieff cycle. Jukka Pihlman extols progress in currency internationalisation, while Alan Bollard explores Asia’s
gaps in integration. Woosik Moon unveils Korea’s interest in further globalisation. G. Padmanabhan of the Reserve Bank of India explains the contrasting fortunes of the renminbi and the rupee. We have reports on our Brasilia and Singapore meetings in June and July. David Tonge and Aslihan Gedik set the scene for OMFIF’s Main Meeting with the Central Bank of Turkey on 5-6 September. Winston Moore looks at landmark oil industry moves in Mexico. Niels Thygesen analyses signs of European growth. Michael Kaimakliotis and Stefan Bielmeier describe the political and economic stakes riding on Germany’s election on 22 September. Gabriel Stein and Colin Robertson examine latest changes in international central banking behaviour. Darrell Delamaide describes the on-off debate on how and when the US Federal Reserve will cut back quantitative easing. Angela Cummine shows how some sovereign funds are trying to become responsible investors. William Keegan provides a sceptical postscript on whether central bankers care about unemployment.