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We are pleased to announce the publication of IPC Policy Research Brief #6, “Pro-Growth Alternatives for Monetary and Financial Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa”. This Brief develops some of the themes introduced by IPC Policy Research Brief #4, “The Macroeconomic Implications of MDG-Based Strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa”.



Available online at: http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCPolicyResearchBrief6.pdf


The authors of the newest Brief, Robert Pollin, Gerald Epstein and James Heintz of the Political Economy Research Institute, seek to provide viable alternatives to neoliberalism in three major areas: 1) inflation and monetary policy, 2) capital flows, speculation and the exchange rate, and 3) banking systems and access to credit. Their heterodox recommendations include pursuing direct measures against supply-shock inflation, targeting the short-term interest rate instead of the money supply, using capital-management policies to help stabilize the exchange rate, instituting loan-guarantee programmes for small-scale enterprises, and scaling up public development banks.



Policy Research Briefs #4 and #5 are part of the ongoing IPC research programme, “Economic Policies, MDGs and Poverty”. See IPC Policy Research Brief #1, “The Macroeconomic Debate on Scaling up HIV/AIDS Financing”, which raises many points still relevant to current macroeconomic debates.