2  BIS Review 2/2004  This shows that the size of a country's external imbalance over the medium to long term is determined by the difference from the rest of the world in terms of such fundamental determinants for economic growth as technological progress, population growth, and national savings rates.1  III.
Many countries in the region, for example Brazil, have taken advantage of the changed environment and have systematically made their debt stock less vulnerable to exchange rate and interest rate movements (e.g. through changing the denomination and by issuing longer term fixed-rate debt). Favourable market developments have contributed to strengthening of external positions.