Measuring Tailwind in an Emerging Market Economy: The Case of Argentina

Abstract

This paper introduces an index that seeks to objectively measure tailwind, a term used to describe favorable external conditions in commodity and financial markets that can lead to improved macroeconomic performance. Argentina is and has historically been a net exporter of commodities and a net importer of capital, therefore it benefits from rising prices in international commodity markets and the availability of low cost long-term capital. The index is partly based on the framework of “push” and “pull” factors developed in the early 1990s to explain international capital flows into emerging markets economies and my own experience as an international investment banker during the nineties.