This 2004 Article IV Consultation highlights that during the first four years of the Third Five-Year Development Plan (2000/01–2003/04), Iran’s real GDP grew by 5.6 percent on average. The external current account was in surplus, external debt was reduced to a very low level,...

This paper assesses Lesotho’s Fourth Review Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility Arrangement and Request for Waiver of Performance Criteria. Lesotho’s economic program was broadly on track through December 2002, but large fiscal slippages emerged by end-March 2003. IMF...

This 2002 Article IV Consultation for the Kingdom of the Netherlands—Aruba highlights that after growing at more than 4 percent per year in 1996–2000, the Aruba economy experienced two years of retrenchment, with GDP falling an estimated 1.2 percent in 2001 and 3.8 percent in 2002....

This paper examines determinants of inflation in Ukraine during 1993-2002 in a cointegrating framework. Two basic theoretical models-a markup and a money market model-are tested. While broad money is cointegrated with the CPI for the whole sample and for early subsamples, the cointegration...

This 2002 Article IV Consultation highlights that since 2000, economic growth in Costa Rica has slowed to about 2 percent. Inflation has remained at 10 percent, and unemployment has remained at about 6 percent. The external current account deficit has increased to about 5.5 percent of GDP,...

This 2003 Article IV Consultation states that Belarus made noticeable progress in some areas of economic reform over the past several years, but overall macroeconomic performance in 2002 was mixed. Inflation in 2002 was the lowest since Belarus became independent, yet it remains the highest in...

In 2003, Guinea's macroeconomic management deteriorated significantly, and the prospects for 2003 are uncertain at best. Performance under the 2002–03 poverty reduction and growth facility (PRGF)-supported program is weak. The main challenge is to promote and sustain the strong private...

This report examines recent economic developments and regional policy issues in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Although progress has been achieved on the integration front since 1994, including the establishment of a customs union and the creation of the economic union,...

This paper discusses the case for a money pillar in the European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary policy strategy. Time-series evidence for industrial countries based on frequency-domain and unobserved-components analysis suggests that money can play a useful role in gauging and constraining...