ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes two aspects of the requisite internal economics. The first, which may prove decisive in the short run, is the set of indicators of a country's current economic strength: its rate of economic growth and its ability to maintain relatively stable prices. The second aspect comprises the more permanent economic factors which "qualify" a country for international status in the first instance: its size in the world economy, which go far to determine the capacity of its capital markets. The chapter examines the first set as "flow" variables, the second set as "stock" variables. It assesses a variety of the external economic attributes required of a key currency country as the most direct indicators of whether confidence can be maintained in the relative stability of its currency and its international status retained. Domestic politics might thus preclude the possibility of sustaining a key currency role even if it started.
