Uruguay : Selected Issues.

This Selected Issues paper investigates the impact of exchange rate movements on private consumption in Uruguay. Uruguay is a highly dollarized economy, which makes the relationship between exchange rate movements and private consumption particularly complex. The paper shows that a large share of Ur...

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Bibliographic Details
Corporate Author: International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept
Format: Journal
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2018.
Series:IMF Staff Country Reports; Country Report ; No. 2018/024
Online Access:Full text available on IMF
Description
Summary:This Selected Issues paper investigates the impact of exchange rate movements on private consumption in Uruguay. Uruguay is a highly dollarized economy, which makes the relationship between exchange rate movements and private consumption particularly complex. The paper shows that a large share of Uruguayan households is liquidity constrained, which allows the transitory real income shocks brought about by exchange rate pass-through to have a significant impact on consumption. Moreover, exchange rate pass-through is highly heterogenous, with relative prices of durables increasing (decreasing) following a depreciation (appreciation). This creates incentives for households to engage in intertemporal substitution where they buy durables when they are relatively cheaper. Data from Input-Output tables show that Uruguay produces a nontrivial amount of the tradable, durable goods it consumes, opening the door to contractionary depreciations. The results offer a potential explanation for the often noted 'excess volatility of consumption' in emerging markets for the case of Uruguay.
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Physical Description:1 online resource (49 pages)
Format:Mode of access: Internet
ISSN:1934-7685
Access:Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students