In recent months, emerging economies have witnessed capital outflows, higher interest rates, and sharp currency depreciations which have stoked inflation and threatened to reduce growth even more sharply at this stage in the economic cycle. A recent study showed that 36 of 53 emerging markets reviewed experienced some form of exchange rate depreciation in the first half of 2013 with average rates of depreciation hovering at over 6 percent. It attributed this largely to deteriorating macroeconomic fundamentals in some of the countries and the flight to safety of portfolio investments from emerging markets as a result of the US Federal Reserve’s decision to scale back on monthly bond purchases (i.e. tapering implied increases in relative interest rates in the US).