In the eyes of the International Monetary Fund, a country that allows the value of its currency to be determined by supply and demand is demonstrating financial maturity. "Emerging market countries need to consider adopting more flexible exchange rate regimes as they develop economically and institutionally," said a 2004 IMF paper whose lead author was the organization's former chief economist, Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard. The IMF's World Economic Outlook, released this month, says the commodity price bust has been harder on commodity exporters with pegged currencies than on ones with flexible exchange rates, which were able to shore up their economies without running up budget deficits or running down currency reserves.
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