Recent Developments in International Financial Markets

Abstract

This paper describes developments in international financial markets during 1993 and the first half of 1994. It covers three main areas. First, it discusses the widespread and simultaneous fall in bond prices in the major industrial countries during the first quarter of 1994. Second, it describes the rapid growth of derivatives and other new financial instruments in recent years, and the initiatives that have emerged to regulate and supervise these innovations. Finally, the paper examines developing country international financing issues, focusing in particular on the continued surge of private capital inflows experienced by a large number of Asian countries.