This Joint Staff Assessment reviews the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Status Report for Lesotho. The report states that the authorities are in the final stages of completing the PRSP and expect to submit it to the Cabinet for approval by mid-October and to the Bank and the IMF by...

This paper reviews Guyana’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Progress Report 2004. In spite of many challenges, the government made progress in implementing its Poverty Reduction Program. In particular, it pursued prudent macroeconomic policies, which improved economic fundamentals...

This paper presents a model featuring variable utilization rates across firms due to production inflexibilities and idiosyncratic demand uncertainty. Within a New Keynesian framework, we show how the corresponding bottlenecks and stock-outs generate asymmetries in the transmission mechanism of...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix reviews Samoa’s record of economic reform, its economic performance to date, and future areas of reform focus. The paper highlights that reform of the taxation system has reduced Samoa’s dependence on international trade taxes and...

Executive Directors commend the government for successfully completing the Living Standard Measurement Survey. There is a need to improve governance, and the fight against corruption has to be prioritized crosscutting all reforms in the strategy. Maintaining a stable macroeconomic environment...

This paper presents a Joint Staff Assessment of the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP) for Bangladesh. The I-PRSP lays out a broader vision for the future along with a medium-term economic strategy. The IMF staff considers that Bangladesh’s I-PRSP constitutes a cohesive...

This paper evaluates the Joint Staff Assessment of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for Armenia, which builds on the strategy laid out in the Interim PRSP. It provides an extensive analysis on the causes of poverty and the challenges faced, the comprehensive strategy with short- and...

This paper presents the Joint Staff Assessment of Sierra Leone’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Preparation Status Report. Progress in the preparation of the PRSP has been slow. Consequently, the original completion date of end-December 2002 envisaged in the interim poverty...

This paper provides a primer on benefit incidence analysis (BIA) for macroeconomists and a new data set on the benefit incidence of education and health spending covering 56 countries over 1960-2000, representing a significant improvement in quality and coverage over existing compilations. The...

The Joint Staff Assessment (JSA) of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Preparation Status Report for the Lao People's Democratic Republic was prepared by the staff of both the World Bank and IMF. The JSA evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of a country's poverty reduction objectives and...