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This paper examines the evolution of effective exchange rates in nine Central and Eastern European countries in terms of development trends, volatility and cyclicality. Consequently, it provides direct empirical evidence on the nature of the relationship between effective exchange rates and selected macroeconomic fundamentals, addressing a key precondition of numerous exchange rate determination models and theories that attempt to explain the role of exchange rates in the economy. The results suggest that flexible exchange rate arrangements are reflected in both nominal and real effective exchange rates having higher volatility and variability. Furthermore, the results provide mixed evidence in terms of intensity, direction and cyclicality, but show a weak correlation between exchange rates and fundamentals. Sufficiently high coefficients are found only for money supply. Consequently, using fundamentals for the determination of exchange rates and using the exchange rate to explain economic development may be of limited use for the countries analyzed.

Each company carries out its activities with different financial resources. Their use then affects the cost of equity and profitability of investments, which determines the possibility to compete in the capital market. Thus, this study is provided in order to define the financing policy with a proper capital structure that is able to minimize the cost of equity of the company in order to improve its financial competitiveness. The research focuses on Ukrainian food processing companies in the period 2013-2020. The cost of equity is calculated using the modified CAPM model and the methodology of Aswath Damoradan. The US Treasury bond rate as the risk-free rate, equity risk premium, and unlevered β-coefficient for food processing companies in emerging markets were taken from his databases. The leveraged β-coefficient was determined, considering the interest-bearing liabilities and the trade payable of the companies analysed. The cost of equity and its weighted cost were calculated within variants of the conservative, moderate, and aggressive financing policies. The results indicate that the lowest cost of equity occurs in the variants of conservative, moderate, and super-aggressive financing policies based on the financial independence of the company. Conversely, the lowest weighted cost of equity is identified for the aggressive and super-aggressive financing policies with negligible equity but significant use of non-interestbearing debt. The link between the cost of equity (its weighted cost) and the use of debt is rather weak in the sample of firms examined. Although the relation is direct for the cost of equity, the correlation coefficients show an inverse relationship for its weighted cost. This confirms that the choice of an appropriate variant of financing policy can lead to minimising the cost of equity and increasing the financial competitiveness of the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stock values of companies listed on stock exchanges could be influenced by many factors. The aim of this article is to examine existence and character of relationship between stock prices of selected Swiss real estate companies and macroeconomic fundamentals (GDP, interest rate, price level). The existence of long-run equilibrium relationship between stock prices and macroeconomic fundamentals is tested with the Johansen cointegration. The short run dynamics between the variables is examined by Vector Error Correction modelling and the Granger causality test. During the period 2005 - 2014 we revealed a long-run equilibrium for five of the six analyzed stocks. We also confirmed that macroeconomic variables and the interest rate in particular, can explain a long-run behavior of stock prices. By contrast, macroeconomic variables are usually short in explanation of short-run dynamics of stock prices. However, the results differ substantially among the stocks and, hence, they prevent us from drawing any general conclusion for the entire real estate sector in Switzerland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) has had a five-year experience with the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) that was introduced by the European Commission in December 2011 as a response to accumulation of huge imbalances with the EU and the euro area. This paper evaluates results of the MIP and aims to examine what kind of imbalances have been revealed by the MIP, evaluate the current settings of the MIP and propose reforms that would enhance functioning and applicability of the MIP in practice. Based on results published in Alert Mechanism Reports and In-Depth Reviews and evaluation of the yearly cycle of the MIP, we propose several reforms and changes in the MIP and the scoreboard of indicators in particular. We bring forward a concept of relative thresholds that reflect economic development much better than currently applied absolute thresholds. Moreover, we recommend modification of some of the indicators involved in the MIP and introduction of maximally three flagship indicators that would receive special attention in assessment of the risk stemming from macroeconomic imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is highly probable that the fulfillment of the exchange rate stability convergence criterion (ERSC) in the European Union (EU) New Member States (NMS) will be evaluated within the asymmetric fluctuation bank around the central parity. Obviously, there is a necessity for analysis of the asymmetric effects in the NMS and candidate countries exchange rate volatility. In this article, the TARCH model extended by the concept of implicit target exchange rate is applied on daily data from seven NMS and candidate countries. The results suggest that symptoms of asymmetry were found in volatility of almost all exchange rates while some pose a potential threat to fulfillment of the criterion. By contrast, the most positive results were revealed in Slovakia where the increase in the exchange rate volatility is driven by the appreciation of the national currency and the appreciation-side deviation from the target exchange rate. Such a finding is consistent with the asymmetric fluctuation band which allows substantially larger deviations on the appreciation side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign direct investment is generally considered to be an instrument how to stimulate economic growth of any country. Just because of this purpose governments of transition countries try to encourage the inflow of foreign direct investment by various measures. The aim of this paper is to analyse the relation between foreign direct investment, economic growth and export in Slovenia. For this purpose we apply cointegration analysis along with the vector error correction model. The results confirm the existence of a long-term relation between the variables analysed. We reveal a positive impact of GDP and impact of foreign direct investment on export. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]