Financial crisis and exchange market pressure In energy exporting countries: Fisher's discriminant function approach

Financial crises are unpredictable and threatening the economic stability of countries. Hence, policymakers are forced to adopt appropriate tactics to defuse and resolve crises. One of the indicators that helps policymakers and economists is the exchange market pressure. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors affecting the foreign exchange market pressure during 2008- 2009 financial crisis period in OPEC countries using the Fisher's linear function. The results of this research show that exports and imports have the greatest impact on the classification of countries based on the exchange market pressure. The health index is ranked second, followed by the third in the gross domestic product. Monetary variables such as liquidity and inflation are placed in the next ranks. Moreover, Savings, foreign direct investment, unemployment and the population had the least impact on the rating based on the exchange market pressure during the crisis period. The results also indicate that the OPEC countries (except Qatar) are ranked among a group of countries where the impact of the crisis has been remarkable for them.