In January 2002, the Government announced the end of the currency convertibility regime.

Germany had moved to current account convertibility in 1958, but Japan only in 1964.

Alone among the world s great nations, the US did manage to guarantee dollar convertibility throughout the Great War.

By limiting the convertibility of its currency, China is avoiding currency markets ability to discipline domestic economic decisions.

Finally, any regulation in this area should recognize that capital account convertibility is not obligatory for the IMF s clients.

So when the dollar s convertibility into gold was suspended, the value of that debt soared, threatening many institutions survival.

Once a country eliminated convertibility into gold, it was free to pursue monetary expansion, and deflation tended to end.

The Italians and Spaniards are right the principal reason for the size of the spread between the periphery and Germany is convertibility risk.

But it will not be big enough to dispel convertibility risk and hence demonstrate the ECB s credibility as a lender of last resort.

Most of the reporting Parties provided information on the evolution of their economies, including developments relating to globalization, deregulation, privatization and currency convertibility.

After World War II, the West dismantled barriers to trade and investment flows, and worked to eliminate exchange controls and move to currency convertibility.

Britain maintained the pound s convertibility into gold at the outbreak of the Great War to preserve its credibility as the international medium of exchange.

But the market forces that cause those currencies to appreciate do not work on the renminbi, because China has only very limited capital account convertibility.

The founding governors of the Federal Reserve System interpreted their mandate narrowly, viewing the Fed as responsible for maintaining gold convertibility and a stable dollar.

The new initiative calls for all member states to harmonize their economic, fiscal, and monetary policies completely, beginning with currency convertibility and followed by exchange rate unification and, finally, a common currency. Several currencies have attained some measure of regional convertibility, which should encourage monetary harmonization and promote intraregional trade, as countries trade flows shift from partners that require payment in foreign currency.

China moved to current account convertibility in 1996, but retained a substantial number of controls on capital movements, which have served as a shield against financial contagion.

The Italian and Spanish governments argue that their high borrowing costs largely reflect convertibility risks, and that the ECB should do as much as necessary to address them.

The link between currencies and gold was irrevocably broken in 1971, when US President Richard Nixon decided to suspend the convertibility of dollars into gold for central banks.

Scandalously, they still have to surrender 50 of their foreign exchange reserves to the French Treasury as a guarantee of the CFA franc s limited convertibility and free transfer to France.

This is why capital account regulations are allowed under IMF rules, and why the attempt to introduce capital account convertibility into the IMF s Articles of Agreement was defeated in 1997.

China moved to current account convertibility in 1996, but retained a substantial number of controls on capital movements, which have served as a shield against financial contagion. Are these still needed?

The British were forced to abandon gold convertibility in April 1919 a tactical withdrawal intended to pave the way for Britain s return to the former 4.8665 parity with the American dollar.

Regrettably, throughout this process of recovery, expansion and transformation, we did not have the support of the International Monetary Fund, which had provided support until only weeks before the convertibility regime.

In 1931, after Britain and some two dozen other countries suspended gold convertibility and allowed their currencies to depreciate, countries that stuck to the gold standard found themselves in a deflationary vice.

America s financial house had to be put in order, all debts repaid, and, as London had done for a long time, confidence had to be maintained, which meant guaranteeing the dollar s convertibility into gold.

In the developed countries, too, trade liberalization, which started earlier in the postwar period, was accompanied by other forms of economic opening (for example, a return to currency convertibility), resulting in rapid GDP growth.

The requirement for exporters to surrender 75 per cent of foreign currency proceeds was lifted in December 2004, and in January 2005 Egypt accepted the IMF Article VIII obligation to maintain current account convertibility.

More appalling is the fact that France guarantees the CFA franc s free convertibility into hard currency, originally on the condition that all 15 Franc Zone countries surrender 100 of their foreign reserves to the French Treasury.

Particularly damaging is the 17.7 billion in foreign exchange reserves that France keeps in a special Treasury account at an interest rate of only 1.5 , thereby guaranteeing the convertibility of the CFA franc, which it underwrites.

Finally, for all the talk today of the discipline that the gold standard supposedly provided, countries that adhered to it regularly suspended convertibility meaning that the domestic currency could no longer be converted freely into gold.

Asymmetries in currency markets are a particularly important aspect of economic power, since they underlie global trade and financial markets. By limiting the convertibility of its currency, China is avoiding currency markets ability to discipline domestic economic decisions.

After the weakening of the dollar and President Richard M. Nixon s decision to end its convertibility into gold, in 1975 France convened leaders of five countries in the library of the Chateau de Rambouillet to discuss monetary affairs.

2. Reaffirms the policy of diversification of the investments of the Fund across geographical areas, wherever this serves the interests of the participants and beneficiaries of the Fund, in accordance with the four criteria of safety, profitability, liquidity and convertibility.

2. Reaffirms the policy of diversification of the investments of the Fund across geographical areas, wherever this serves the interests of the participants and beneficiaries of the Fund, in accordance with the four criteria of safety, profitability, liquidity and convertibility

3. Also reaffirms the policy of diversification of the investments of the Fund across geographical areas, wherever this serves the interests of the participants and beneficiaries of the Fund, in accordance with the four criteria of safety, profitability, liquidity and convertibility

But the fixed exchange rate system also undermined the United States capacity to manage its balance of payments. That is why, in 1971, President Richard Nixon unilaterally abandoned the dollar s convertibility to gold, leaving major currencies exchange rates to float against one another.

This explains the almost continuous stream of measures that emanate from Beijing these days increased public spending, monetary easing, pressure on state enterprises to expand activity, subsidies to exporters, partial convertibility of the remninbi to spur trade with neighboring countries, and so on.

The second way implies a thorough overhaul of the system. This would entail pegging the CFA franc not only to the euro, but also to a basket of other currencies, abolishing the fixed exchange rate and the CFA franc s convertibility, and fast tracking economic integration.

In fact, it was clear that the culprits were the International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury, which had encouraged a shift to capital account convertibility without understanding that the case for free capital flows was not symmetrical with the case for free trade.

(a) The Investment Management Service should review the possibility of further diversifying its investment portfolio (asset classes) using alternative investments, within its tenets of safety, profitability, liquidity and convertibility, and inform the Pension Board of the results of the review for its consideration (AS2003 801 02 003)