Equilibrium real exchange rates, misalignment and competitiveness in the Southern Cone

To examine the evolution of competitiveness in the production of traded goods in a particular country, it is necessary not just to disentangle actual from sustained equilibrium real exchange rate (SERER); movements, but also to determine the extent to which movements in SERERs have been driven by changes in sectoral productivity performance or by other factors. This paper presents an analysis of the evolution of the competitiveness in the traded goods sectors in six Latin American countries that takes into account both of these issues. It finds that the competitiveness of the nontraditional traded goods sector has evolved in different ways among these countries during recent years. Since the mid-1990s, it has stabilized in Argentina while improving in Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Results for Brazil are ambiguous.