Romania’s external position continues to improve. Inflation peaked in December 2010, and is now likely to decline. Financial market stress has remained relatively low in recent months. The current account deficit improved from 13½ percent of GDP in 2007 to about 4¼ percent of GDP in...

St. Lucia faces significant policy challenges in the aftermath of Hurricane Tomas. It is experiencing an urgent balance of payments need that would result in a severe economic disruption. The government is focused on achieving medium-term debt sustainability. The policies outlined tackle urgent...

Fiscal profligacy, an erosion of competitiveness, and governance problems have undermined investor confidence and curtailed access to foreign financing in Zimbabwe. The new economic team has taken steps in devaluing the currency and raising the awareness of public opinion about the size of the...

The reports highlights that, even though the Russian economy has started reviving from the crisis, growth has been moderate and inflation high. Executive Directors have advised that the focus should be on reducing fiscal vulnerabilities, lowering inflation, promoting a stronger and more...

Barbados' economy continued to grow, but macroeconomic imbalances worsened. Executive Directors observed that the imbalances are owed to a procyclical fiscal stance, and advised to tighten monetary policy and safeguard the fixed exchange rate regime as an anchor of macroeconomic stability. They...

This paper presents an overview of the economy of Hungary. The paper highlights that during the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1976–80), actual growth rates for almost all major plan aggregates remained below the targets. The lower targets set for the increase in both consumption and investment in...

This study examines the challenges and issues facing policymakers in highly dollarized economies. Focusing on Cambodia, which achieved almost complete dollarization during 1991-95, the authors review recent developments in the literature on dollarization and examine the costs and benefits of...

Political instability and weak macroeconomic management have generated negative real per capita gross domestic product growth rates, contributing to widespread poverty and a worsening of social indicators. The challenge is to attain a higher rate of growth on a sustained basis and raise the...

This paper discusses Mozambique’s Third Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) and Request for Modification of Performance Criteria. Performance under the program has been broadly satisfactory so far in 2005. All quantitative and...

Discussions on the Second Review Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Ffacility (PRGF) arrangement took place in Dushanbe. The IMF-supported program concentrates on enhancing macroeconomic stability and implementing structural reform in the key areas of banking, energy, and agriculture. The...