The paper examines empirically the question of whether more unequal societies spend more on income redistribution than their more egalitarian counterparts. Theoretical arguments on this issue are inconclusive. The political economy literature suggests that redistributive spending is higher in...

This paper focuses on principles and various aspects of debt reduction and economic activity. The paper analyzes the effect of debt and debt-service reduction on the contractual and market values of a country's debt and also describes the IMF staff's preliminary attempts to describe and quantify...

The coronavirus crisis has stiffened debt and development-related headwinds that had become strong even before 2020. Sustaining development while maintaining debt sustainability has been made harder by the protracted effects of the pandemic on public finances, earnings and employment, and human...

Over the past decade, global output has grown by more than 3 percent a year and inflation has slowed in most regions. The fruits of this growthhave not been shared equally, however, and income disparities have grownin many countries, developed as well as developing. One of the mostpressing...

This paper identifies the countries that meet the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative's income and indebtedness eligibility criteria based on end-2004 data. It also updates the status of these countries toward qualifying for debt relief and presents cost estimates of debt...

This paper reports the Fund's income position for FY 2013 following the closing of the Fund's accounts for the financial year and completion of the external audit. FY 2013 net income, including income from surcharges, amounted to SDR 2.0 billion, and was in line with the April estimate. In...

The resumption of economic growth in Latin America is predicated on the successful restoration of fiscal discipline and stabilization. In restoring fiscal discipline, the mix of policy instruments should aim at maximizing efficiency in the use of domestic and foreign resources. Poverty...

There has been a growing awareness of the income distribution dimension of macroeconomic policies. This paper presents a framework for studying this issue empirically, and considers the case of the Philippines using data available from integrated surveys of households. After developing and...