Capital Account Convertibility - Application

Application

In most traditional theories of international trade, the reasoning for capital account convertibility was so that foreign investors could invest without barriers. Prior to its implementation, foreign investment was hindered by uneven exchange rates due to corrupt officials, local businessmen had no convenient way to handle large cash transactions, and national banks were disassociated from fiscal exchange policy and incurred high costs in supplying hard-currency loans for those few local companies that wished to do business abroad.

Due to the low exchange rates and lower costs associated with Third World nations, this was expected to spur domestic capital, which would lead to welfare gains, and in turn lead to higher GDP growth. The tradeoff for such growth was seen as a lack of sustainable internal GNP growth and a decrease in domestic capital investments.

When CAC is used with the proper restraints, this is exactly what happens. The entire outsourcing movement with jobs and factories going overseas is a direct result of the foreign investment aspect of CAC. The Tarapore Committee's recommendation of tying liquid assets to static assets (i.e., investing in long term government bonds, etc.) was seen by many economists as directly responsible for stabilizing the idea of capital account liberalization.

Read more about this topic:  Capital Account Convertibility

Famous quotes containing the word application:

    The receipt to make a speaker, and an applauded one too, is short and easy.—Take of common sense quantum sufficit, add a little application to the rules and orders of the House, throw obvious thoughts in a new light, and make up the whole with a large quantity of purity, correctness, and elegancy of style.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    Most people, no doubt, when they espouse human rights, make their own mental reservations about the proper application of the word “human.”
    Suzanne Lafollette (1893–1983)

    I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems with which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation.
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)