This paper discusses the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s economy achieved a major recovery, with robust GDP growth from a low level. Afghanistan has made significant progress in some areas of human...

This paper analyzes Zimbabwe's export performance in recent years and identifies the factors that could improve export performance, from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective. Improving export performance is critical to a turnaround in Zimbabwe's economic situation. The growth rate of...

The report highlights the IMF projections and estimates of St. Lucia's basic data indicators, its GDP by economic activity at constant and current factor cost, selected data on the banana industry, operations of the central government, operations of the consolidated public sector, monetary...

The creation, in 1994, of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) customs union was a major step in the regional integration process in central Africa. The implementation of the agreed regime by the member countries, however, has remained unsatisfactory. A 2002–03...

In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country.

Improving market access in industrial countries and retaining preferences have been Africa's two key objectives in the Doha Round trade negotiations. This paper argues that African negotiators may have overlooked the potential market access gains in developing countries, where trade barriers...

This paper asks how market expansion contributes to productivity growth. It investigates whether entry to both new international markets and new domestic markets is associated with greater productivity growth. It also examines whether exit from export markets is necessarily associated with...

La presente etude porte sur la maniere dont l'expansion des entreprises sur les marches contribue a la croissance de la productivite. On y examine la question de savoir s'il existe un lien entre l'entree sur de nouveaux marches, tant internationaux qu'interieurs, et une croissance plus marquee...

This paper presents the primary institutions and economic policies that have led to Chile’s remarkable record of stability and growth over the past twenty years. The core of this policy stance is the combination of fiscal discipline and an open trade policy regime, together with carefully...

Preference erosion has become an obstacle to multilateral trade liberalization, as beneficiaries of trade preferences have an incentive to resist reductions in mostfavored- nation (MFN) tariffs. This study identifies middle-income developing countries that are vulnerable to export revenue loss...