Capital controls
Rules restricting the purchase, export or conversion of currency and cross-border transfers.
How to read the number
They are introduced to hold the exchange rate and the reserves when outflows exceed what the market can absorb. For an investor they convert a question of return into a question of access.
When the metric lies
They are typically imposed without notice and applied to positions already open, not only to new ones, so planning to exit before they arrive is not a plan.
Also known as: currency restrictions