Not a commodity, money is merely a measuring stick that facilitates the real exchange of wealth.
More investment and exports and a competitive real exchange rate can also give a temporary boost.
However, an increase in the real exchange rate need not require a rise in the nominal rate.
"At a stroke, Greece can lower its real exchange rate and therefore be more competitive, " Mr. Bootle says.
Structural reforms to boost spending in those surplus economies will help, but their real exchange rates also need to appreciate.
China's big surpluses and America's big deficits depend on the real exchange rate between them and all of their trading partners.
But almost all poorer countries look cheap by this gauge, and over the past decade China's real exchange rate has risen.
Lithuania's industry has been slower to restructure than Estonia's, and it has lost competitiveness as the real exchange rate has appreciated.
This is exactly what economic theory would predict: countries with faster productivity growth in the traded-goods sector should see rising real exchange rates.
The ADB's economists find that trade in parts is much less sensitive to changes in the real exchange rate than trade in finished products.
And already, because of inflation in Brazil and price deflation in Argentina, the real exchange rate between them is close to its pre-devaluation level.
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Its real exchange rate (which takes account of differences in inflation between Japan and its trading partners) fell to a 23-year low last month (see chart).
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In other words, these measures have had almost no mid-term impact on the dollar-real exchange rate because investments of all kinds continue flowing into this country.
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And if one looks at the real exchange rate--essentially taking into account price differences between the U.S. and China--the yuan has actually depreciated against the dollar.
Only by tightening internal liquidity and allowing the real exchange rate to fall will competitiveness be restored as the economy will shift resources to the tradable sector.
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Mr Svensson argues that the yen needs to be pushed to an undervalued level, from which the public would then expect an appreciation of the real exchange rate.
To sustain its catch-up with America, China needs to rebalance its economy away from exports towards consumer spending, which will require a rise in its real exchange rate.
Some economists argue that as China gets richer it needs to allow its real exchange rate to rise, in order to reap the full gains of its economic success.
This implies that it is natural for China's exchange rate to be below its PPP, but as it gets richer and productivity rises, its real exchange rate should rise.
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And if a devaluation cannot be used to reduce real wages, the real exchange rate overvaluation will be undone via a slow and painful process of wage and price deflation.
The market appears highly bullish on the Brazilian currency, the real, with Barclays Capital saying April 6 that the dollar-real exchange could take the currency to BRL1.50 within in the next three months.
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It would oblige Argentina to continue trying to adjust its real exchange rate by deflation (cutting nominal wages and prices in nominal terms), a process which has already forced the collapse of many businesses.
Conservatively speaking, then, it appears that over the past couple of years, the real exchange rate of the yuan, deflated by unit labor costs, has been appreciating against the dollar at a rate of something like 15 percent per year.
It seems the Ministry of Finance has ceded foreign exchange rate policy back to the Central Bank where it belongs. the bank has, for now, won the policy argument that further weakening of the real will be inflationary and lead to a stronger real exchange rate, says Tony Volpon, managing director at Nomura Securities in New York.
Rather than fussing for months to develop all the trappings of a real commodities exchange, they decided to launch with a bare-bones site and evolve with the market.
Because Entropia has a real cash economy (players can exchange Project Entropia Dollars for real U.S. dolllars at a fixed 10:1 exchange rate), virtual entrepreneurs can start real moneymaking businesses in the game.
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Entropia is an online game that has a real cash economy--players can exchange Project Entropia dollars for real U.S. dollars at a fixed 10:1 exchange rate, enabling virtual entrepreneurs to start businesses in the game.
But they are demanding real change in exchange for increasing the national credit limit.
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Both sides have agreed to exchange real-time intelligence on any future terror threats.
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