This assessment of Financial Sector Supervision and Regulation for Samoa provides an overview of legal and institutional frameworks. Compliance with the Basel Core Principles (BCPs) for the supervision of international and domestic banks has improved considerably. Supervision of domestic banks...

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.

This paper surveys the foreign exchange markets, money and secondary government security markets, and stock exchanges in 107 smaller economy countries. The underdevelopment of these markets impedes risk transfer, monetary policy, corporate financing, and the capacity to absorb capital inflows....

Cross-currency basis swap rates that exchange US-dollar (USD) and Japanese-yen (JPY) LIBORs have fluctuated since the late 1990s. It is increasingly important for market participants to figure out such swap rates, but there have not been many empirical studies about actual markets. This study...

The Financial System Stability Assessment of Morocco reviews the reform program that is aimed at establishing a modern, market-oriented financial system that optimizes the mobilization of savings and the allocation of financial resources. It reviews the modernization of the banking sector and...

One plausible mechanism through which financial market shocks may propagate across countries is through the effect of past gains and losses on investors' risk aversion. We first present a simple model on how heterogeneous changes in investors' risk aversion affect portfolio decisions and stock...

This paper analyzes through what channels the euro crisis has affected firm valuations globally. It examines stock price responses over the past year for 3045 non-financial firms in 16 countries to three key crisis events. Using pre-crisis benchmarks, it separates effects arising from changes in...

This Selected Issues paper analyzes the sources of recent growth in Tajikistan. It concludes that economic growth has been mainly driven by the services sector and a surge in remittances that have been mainly used for private consumption and small-scale private investment. The paper summarizes...

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.