It’s not just Russia: Currency crisis in the Commonwealth of independent states
Highlights • The currency crisis that started in Russia and Ukraine during 2014 has spread to neighbouring countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The collapse of the Russian ruble, expected recession in Russia, the stronger US dollar and lower commodity prices have negatively affected the entire region, with the consequence that the European Union's entire eastern neighbourhood faces serious economic, social and political challenges because of weaker currencies, higher inflation, decreasing export revenues and labour remittances, net capital outflows and stagnating or declining GDP. • The crisis requires a proper policy response from CIS governments, the International Monetary Fund and the EU. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Donbass requires rapid resolution, as the first step to return Russia to the mainstream of global economic and political cooperation. Beyond that, both Russia and Ukraine need deep structural and institutional reforms. The EU should deepen economic ties with those CIS countries that are interested in a closer relationship with Europe. The IMF should provide additional assistance to those CIS countries that have become victims of a new regional contagion, while preparing for the possibility of more emerging-market crises arising from slower growth, the stronger dollar and lower commodity prices.
Currency crises in post-Soviet economies — a never ending story?
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its successor states have suffered from cyclical currency crises. The most recent episode of 2014–2016 was caused by a combination of external and domestic factors. The former include tighter US monetary policy, slower global growth, and declining commodity prices, whereas the latter include the former Soviet Union (FSU) economies’ extreme macroeconomic fragility (a legacy of past crises), numerous microeconomic rigidities and structural distortions in addition to governmental deficits. In addition, the Russian–Ukraine conflict dealt a heavy blow to both economies and their neighbors. Effective anti-crisis policies must aim at eliminating all deep-rooted causes of repeated financial and macroeconomic turbulence and must involve deep structural and institutional reforms in the entire region.
The National PKI of Peru: a new certification hierarchy
In order to guarantee secure transactions through the Internet and to generate strong evidence that could be used in case of future legal disputes, several countries around the world have promoted and regulated the use of digital signatures based on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). However, despite the high expectations, its implementation has achieved neither the desired results nor its globalization. Many of the reasons were discovered years ago, but they are still open problems for the scientific community nowadays. In order to consider the case of the national PKI of the Peruvian state as empirical evidence for studies that address the open problems, this article describes the details about a new certification hierarchy which is expected to overcome some of its predecessors’ limitations. It is also expected that the information disclosed in this article could be useful to other countries for making a preliminary assessment for possible cross-border recognition of Peruvian digital signatures.