01694cas a2200241 a 4500 AALejournalIMF000341 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781451847079 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Ostry, Jonathan. Current Account Imbalances in AsEAN Countries : Are they a Problem? / Jonathan Ostry. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 1997. 1 online resource (31 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students Applying a consumption-smoothing model to five ASEAN countries reveals that excessive private consumption has not tended to characterize their widening external imbalances in recent years, except to a small degree in Indonesia and Malaysia. Beyond consumption smoothing, however, a number of factors influence the desirability of running large external deficits, including the level and composition of external liabilities, the flexibility of macroeconomic policies, and the health of banking systems. Even when the current account deficit appears sustainable, there is a case to reduce them in order to lower the risks arising from such factors. Mode of access: Internet IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 1997/051 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/1997/051/001.1997.issue-051-en.xml IMF e-Library