The Crawling Band As an Exchange Rate Regime: Lessons from Chile, Colombia, and Israel

This study examines in detail the experiences of three countries that have in recent years operated exchange rate systems of "crawling bands," similar in spirit to the target zones that the author has recommended in the past. Williamson compares the succcessful experiences of 3 countries that have operated crawling bands with 15 similar countries and concludes that the crawling band exchange-rate policy has been an important element in their success. The study includes a manual for managing crawling bands.

John Williamson, senior fellow (retired), was associated with the Institute from 1981 to 2012. He was project director for the UN High-Level Panel on Financing for Development (the Zedillo Report) in 2001; on leave as chief economist for South Asia at the World Bank during 1996–99; economics professor at Pontifica Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (1978–81), University of Warwick (1970–77), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1967, 1980), University of York (1963–68), and Princeton University (1962–63); adviser to the International Monetary Fund (1972–74); and economic consultant to the UK Treasury (1968–70).