This paper presents an Ex Post Assessment of Long-Term Program Engagement for Armenia. The quality of program implementation was uneven at the early stages of IMF engagement, but it has improved in recent years. Implementation of some key structural reforms suffered delays, reflecting in part...

This paper presents Indonesia’s 2005 Article IV Consultation and Third Post-Program Monitoring discussions. The economic strategy has produced positive results over time. Economic growth has gained momentum year by year, inflation has been substantially reduced, and the external position...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix for the Kingdom of the Netherlands—Aruba underlies long-term growth and fiscal sustainability. Aruba’s fiscal position has been deteriorating since the turn of the century, and the medium-term fiscal sustainability analysis shows...

The Bahamas’s 2005 Article IV Consultation reports that the economic slowdown has contributed to deterioration in the fiscal accounts. The Bahamas is a small, open, and relatively wealthy economy, which is highly dependent on tourism from the United States and offshore financial...

The staff report for the 2004 Article IV Consultation on the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) focuses on economic developments and policies. Fiscal and structural reforms are needed for the FSM to achieve self-sufficiency. The large government sector will be increasingly unsustainable given...

This paper reviews trends in bank lending to the private sector, with a particular focus on Central and Eastern European countries, and finds that rapid growth of private sector credit continues to be a key challenge for most of these countries. The paper discusses possible implications for...

This report provides an assessment of fiscal transparency practices in Israel against the requirements of the IMF Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency. The assessment has two parts. The first part is a description of practice, prepared by the IMF staff on the basis of discussions with...

Argentina’s First Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement and a Request for Waiver of Nonobservance and Applicability of Performance Criteria are reviewed. Favorable conditions allowed a further strengthening of the external position, though external arrears continued to increase. Congress...

This paper addresses the challenges to prudential supervision in highly dollarized economies, where central banks and supervisors may be constrained in the use of standard money and financial policy tools. The study’s conclusions are the basis of an ongoing policy dialogue with IMF member...

This paper examines the emergence of financial stability as a key policy objective. It discusses the underlying trends in the financial system, as well as the role of finance in relation to money, the real economy, and public policy. Financial stability is defined in terms of its ability to help...