Effects of Large Exchange Rate Depreciations over Time To shed more light on whether the links between exchange rates and trade have weakened, the analysis reconsiders the effects of large exchange rate depreciations on exports in the first and second halves of the sample. Of the 66 episodes of large currency depreciation in the sample, half (33) occurred in 1997 or earlier, and the other half occurred in more recent years. Analysis of these two time samples indicates little evidence of a weakening in the effects of exchange rates over time (Figure 3.10). The analysis indicates that export prices and volumes responded similarly during the two time samples. Little evidence emerges of either weakened long-term responses or lengthened lags. Overall, the results are consistent with the view that trade and exchange rates have remained connected. It is worth recalling that the view that exchange rates are becoming disconnected from trade has been partly motivated by Japan’s recent experience; despite a sharp depreciation of the yen, export growth has failed to accelerate as expected. As discussed in Box 3.3, this experience reflects a number of Japan-specific factors that have partly offset the positive impact of yen depreciation on exports and that do not necessarily apply elsewhere.
Implications for the Outlook The analysis in this chapter suggests that exchange rate movements tend to have strong effects on exports and imports. Based on the chapter’s estimates, a 10 percent real effective depreciation in an economy’s currency is associated with, on average, a 1.5 percent of GDP rise in real net exports, with substantial cross-country variation around this average. It takes a number of years for the effects to fully materialize, but