Insiders will have already guessed that the Board economist to whom I refer is Kenneth Rogoff, currently a professor of economics at Harvard, and that the paper in question is Ken’s 1985 article, “The Optimal Degree of Commitment to an Intermediate Monetary Target” (Rogoff, 1985).1 The insights of the Rogoff paper are well worth recalling today.
In fact, about a decade ago, several arguments were put forward in favour of issuing foreign currency sovereign debt when the government’s intention to take recourse to sovereign borrowings in the international markets was formally announced by the Hon’ble Finance Minister.