Simulation of Four National CRDs' Operations

Abstract

This chapter introduces simulations of how CRDs might have actually operated in the four different countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, and Pakistan if they had been established in 2009. Two types of data are used, all from publicly accessible databases. The first is data on the annual quantity and cost of imports to each country for three or more years prior to the start of the simulation, from which each CRD's initial “Index” price for each commodity is calculated, as well as the size of the CRD's “Block” of reserves. The second type of data is quarterly market prices of each commodity, and the national exchange-rate where needed, through the period of the simulation, from which changes in the CRDs' reserves are calculated. For each country the level of reserves of the different commodities held by the CRD are clearly seen to automatically vary counter-cyclically as traders sell to or buy from the CRD at the prices in its price-schedule for each commodity.