The golden rule of public finance under active monetary stance: endogenous setting for a developing economy

The stability of economies all over the world over is largely a function of inflation and interest rates. Over the past two decades, Swaziland’s economy experienced increasing inflation and interest rates with the blame leveled against the absolute Monarchy’s inability to manage the economy. In particular, the period of 2010 to 2014 was the hardest hit because of increasing poverty levels. The purpose of the study was therefore to assess the relationship between inflation and interest rates in the context of Swaziland with a view to constructing fiscal and monetary policies capable of driving an efficient economy going forward. The study employed a confirmatory and quantitative approach based on a review of secondary data over the period. The source and description of data included quarterly based data within the 2010–2014 period comprising information on interest rate, gross domestic product and inflation figures from the Central Bank of Swaziland, the national library, and the Central Statistical Department of Swaziland. A descriptive approach, using Microsoft excel, was used to analyze the data. The study findings showed that there was positive relationship between interest rates and inflation. Recommendations were that, Swaziland could craft appropriate fiscal and monetary policies towards controlling the prevailing economic challenges despite the peculiar socio-political nature where the absolute Monarchy holds executive authority and accountability.

Most academic studies in marketing have focused on advanced economies and fast-developing, large emerging markets (Sharma & Lascu, 2018). Until recently, only a few marketing studies have addressed subsistence markets; yet, there are over 4 billion bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) consumers living below less than 1.25 dollars a day in underserved areas worldwide (Kaplinsky, 2011; Sharma & Lascu, 2018). The present study attempts to bridge the gap in the literature by providing a comprehensive review of the theory and practice addressing the subject of marketing at the bottom of the pyramid, focusing on marketing approaches to BOP consumers that both efficiently sell products to this market and enrich their quality of life. The study suggests that selling products to the bottom of the pyramid may be profitable, but companies must be creative in their approach to formulating marketing strategies in order to engage BOP consumers and earn a profit. Marketers should also cater to BOP consumers’ needs in order to foster strong and enduring relationships.

The Great Recession has imposed vital limitations on the policy maker’s ability to react to further economic challenges. In this article, the authors set a purpose to assess the expediency and the size of fiscal consolidation or expansionary measures for countries with emerging markets depending on economic dynamics. The data on the episodes of large changes in fiscal policy, representing both fiscal stimuli and consolidation in Ukraine and in the EU countries with emerging market economies from 2001 to 2017, were evaluated. The authors examined the main reasons of fiscal policy’s volatility and its impact on economic growth. The countries with low and medium level of institutional framework for fiscal policy formulation could face permanent deficit and public debt problem. Episodes of expansionary fiscal adjustments based on government revenues cuts and spending increases were more effective compared with those that were entirely based on spending increases. Empirical investigation showed that successful fiscal consolidation measures obligatory included the government primary spending reduction. In those cases, the budget deficit-to-GDP and public debt-to-GDP ratios were declined. Medium-term priorities to develop the methodical bases of fiscal policy design were justified.